Releasing Expectations

Have you ever made a plan, only to have it all go seemingly awry? That was me this past Tuesday. I got off work a little earlier than usual and had plans to put the finishing touches on last week’s blog post, make dinner, and get to bed at a decent time. All of that changed the minute I got home. Before I even had a chance to walk inside, my loving husband kindly informed me he had killed a wasp in our guest room earlier in the day and—“don’t get mad”—broke the window blind in the process.

The window in the guest room is just over three feet high and approximately five and half feet wide. We didn’t have it covered with the typical twist-the-stick and pull-the-string vinyl mini blind. No, the one on that window is one of those fancier ones you raise, lower, and tilt by shifting the bottom bar of the blind. Two of the strings on the left side of the blind had broken and fallen out of the gear mechanism when my husband killed the wasp. A couple of the blind slats also broke in the process. I took a deep breath in an attempt not to be frustrated. After all, my knight had slayed the dragon that could have stung us or our kitties.

The next hour and a half of my evening was spent rigging the broken string back up through part of the blind and sewing the string together. At least this way, the blind could still function, even though I was unable to get the string back through the actual gear mechanism. I also taped the broken slats back together so the blind wouldn’t look like it had a toothless gap.

During the whole process, however, I felt my stress level and frustration rising with each passing minute that I wasn’t doing what I had planned to do for the evening. By the time I finished fixing the blind and posted my blog article, it was nearly nine o’clock at night. I definitely did not have the time to make dinner at this point. My husband offered to run up to Taco Bell and pick up something to eat. I agreed that it was probably our quickest option and requested a couple of extra burritos so I could take them with me for lunch the next day. Once he returned home, I made the unfortunate discovery that not only had Taco Bell forgotten to put part of my order in the bag, they also messed up the second half of my order and had given us the wrong items. I was in tears. I just wanted dinner and to go to bed. In the moment, even that seemed too difficult to be accomplished.

My husband graciously offered to eat the items I didn’t want and I went ahead and ate the two burritos that were supposed to have been for my lunch the next day. Thankfully, I remembered I had some canned tuna in the cupboard and could make some tuna salad for my lunch. At least one problem was solved, I thought.

Reflecting back on that evening, I realized I had a choice to make. I could remain frustrated because nothing had gone the way I expected it to or I could choose to be grateful that my husband killed the wasp and picked up dinner for us. I had to remind myself that I had chosen to take the time to fix the blind instead of cooking dinner. Being flexible and adapting to the unexpected events that life throws our way is something I am constantly learning how to navigate through. I had to choose to release my expectations and frustration and instead, make the decision to be grateful that I had a loving husband who cared about me and took the time to kill the wasp and pick us up dinner. When we choose to focus on what we’re grateful for, it shifts our perspective from one of frustration to one of thankfulness for the blessings that surround us, despite the chaos of life.

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