Anticipa-yay-shun...

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Anticipation is a delicious thing. It encompasses the physical, mental and emotional as it revs up the heart, creates a whirlwind of thoughts tumbling over each other and heightened sensitivity that crescendos as the Event nears.

It is can be the preparations for a party, or the Super Bowl, or a wedding, or the birth of a child or grandchild… the opening of a business, the start of a favorite TV show or movie, a date with someone you care about, a rare vacation or a special Holiday. Buying a house or new car. Graduation. A loved one’s return. So many things in this life are anticipated; so many times we get excited about something that we expect to happen in our lives.

And there is the flip side. Anticipation of something unpleasant uses the same physical, mental and emotional forms to trigger anxiety.

Much of the time we mold, create, build on and stir up this anticipation into a frenzy; building up the excitement of an upcoming event to massive proportions, allowing the excitement to build and build… much like the clack clack clack as you climb up that first steep incline on a rollercoaster until….. WHEEEEEEEEEEE whoosh! You are right in the middle of a fast and furious ride.

The funniest thing is that most anticipatory events are rather fleeting as compared to the planning and preparations leading up to it. Planning a wedding, training for a race, rehearsing a play, riding that ‘coaster… long hours and weeks and months of anticipation for one shining moment. We live for that!

And we never think it is a waste of time. That glorious moment is sooo worth it!

Unless it is a bad thing. In that case, the dreaded event is usually not as awful as we pictured; the world didn’t end, no one got hit, we didn’t wind up in prison, no one laughed (too hard), no one even NOTICED... The sigh of relief once it is over with is huge! We feel as though we have been given a second chance to do it all again and, more importantly, do it better next time. All that anxiety gives way to learning and resolution. So even BAD anticipation is a good thing!

We like roller coasters, humans are adrenaline junkies… and our planning, anticipation and eventually ending up at the end with our fists in the air shouting "YESSSSSSSS!", that is what makes the major portion of our lives (you know, the tedious day to day stuff) worth it all.

(and suddenly I have a craving to go to Magic Mountain…)



Just Musing,
Susan


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