Anticipation

Children are often trained to anticipate from an early age. Postponed gratification and anticipation are tools used for centuries by classical educators to good purpose. As I grow older, however, I find that anticipation is indeed has at least two sides. It is natural to anticipate joyful events as they approach. People who mate and have offspring are obviously programmed to anticipate by the process of reproduction itself. Yet, doesn't living in anticipation lead to disillusionment inevitably? The actualization of the anticipated event seldom, if ever, matches the imaginings that occur when anticipating it. Anticipation is very much linked to living in the future as depression is link to living in the past. Neither the past nor the future hold the potential for real personal change, growth and happiness. Part of my practice is constant re-orienting myself to living in the present. Being, and being with mindfulness, is the best way for me to become who I wish to be and to improve who I have been.