"In some ways I feel like our man-made expectations of our lives are the perfect example of our intelligence as a species is both our greatest asset and our greatest undoing. In our world of Nicholas Sparks novels and idealised movies, we can adapt a very distorted view on our reality. We expect love to be a guy buying a star for us and expect to find magic in the form of pixie dust to fly to Neverland or become a mermaid. And beyond movies/novels is our media.
When we view things like health and happiness we expect it to look like beautiful fruit platters, running in lulu shorts with no sweat and perfect hair on a sunny day. AND we expect to get there right away. What we don't expect is ugly ass oats, rainy miserable days and a lifelong journey of making mistakes and learning.
So although inherently we know our lives aren't curated IG feeds or movies we can still expect things from life that it can't deliver. We compare our reality to our expectation of our reality and in doing so we take ourselves out of experiencing our lives in the moment as they are. We've let something that isn't bothering us bother us because we expect something else. It's like we've created a problem where none existed to begin with.
So perhaps the key is just changing our perspective on our expectations.
Maybe love is best conveyed in just a humble hug and magic is found in the sun rising. Maybe this life, our life, your life, is already full of wonder. Maybe life's just about being here on this blue orb experiencing all the hurt, struggle, love and happiness this world has to offer.
I'm sitting in a cafe eating two vegan muffins and sippin on chai tea while gazing out the window at this beautiful little boy. He's looking wide-eyed and giddy, dipping his fingers in his moms latte, marvelling then licking up the foam, watching words come out of his loving family with curiosity in his eyes as if each word is a miracle. He's pointing and shouting at birds flying across the perfectly blue sky asking where they are going.
Maybe in his eyes just breathing, talking, seeing flying magical creatures and tasting caffeinated foam is enough to instil wonder in him. Maybe we all need some of his perspective in our lives."