Most of us want to shield those we love from disappointment. But disappointment is not necessarily bad. It has the power to move us to do things we would never have dreamed possible! (But first we have to be really, really unhappy!!)
I think of my 18-year-old self, so miserable during my first year of university in Vancouver. I hated the rainy, grey campus. My classes left me uninspired: none led to work I wanted. I knew I had to change my life course, which I did, moving away for a year's study abroad... which stretched into ten happy, life-altering years.
Don't be afraid to want something, Joan Chittister writes in Aspects of the Heart: The Many Paths to a Good Life. Wanting is a precious part of being human.
Then she adds: Dampened expectations are the beginning of a healthy journey to new ideas, new interests, new events.
Even disappointment can be a good thing!
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