“You ‘ll be wonderin’ whut ‘s de reason I ‘s a grinnin’ all de time,
An’ I guess you t’ink my sperits Mus’ be feelin’ mighty prime.
Well, I ‘fess up, I is tickled As a puppy at his paws.” (The full Expectation poem
by Paul Laurence Dunbar below on the Zonr post.)
Wonderful – Burna Boy (4:32)
Return to Sleep Hypnotic Meditation
Expectation vs Reality (2:30)
What unreasonable expectation(s) have you had to “right-size”, lately?
EXPECTATION (video)
by Paul Laurence Dunbar
You ‘ll be wonderin’ whut ‘s de reason
I ‘s a grinnin’ all de time,
An’ I guess you t’ink my sperits
Mus’ be feelin’ mighty prime.
Well, I ‘fess up, I is tickled
As a puppy at his paws.
But you need n’t think I’s crazy,
I ain’ laffin’ ‘dout a cause.
You’s a wonderin’ too, I reckon,
Why I does n’t seem to eat,
An’ I notice you a lookin’
Lak you felt completely beat
When I ‘fuse to tek de bacon,
An’ don’ settle on de ham.
Don’ you feel no feah erbout me,
Jes’ keep eatin’, an’ be ca’m.
Fu’ I’s waitin’ an’ I’s watchin’
‘Bout a little t’ing I see–
D’ othah night I’s out a walkin’
An’ I passed a ‘simmon tree.
Now I’s whettin’ up my hongry,
An’ I’s laffin’ fit to kill,
Fu’ de fros’ done turned de ‘simmons,
An’ de possum ‘s eat his fill.
He done go’ged hisse’f owdacious,
An’ he stayin’ by de tree!
Don’ you know, ol’ Mistah Possum
Dat you gittin’ fat fu’ me?
‘T ain’t no use to try to ‘spute it,
‘Case I knows you’s gittin’ sweet
Wif dat ‘simmon flavoh thoo you,
So I’s waitin’ fu’ yo’ meat.
An’ some ebenin’ me an Towsah
Gwine to come an’ mek a call,
We jes’ drap in onexpected
Fu’ to shek yo’ han’, dat’s all.
Oh, I knows dat you ‘ll be tickled,
Seems lak I kin see you smile,
So pu’haps I mought pu’suade you
Fu’ to visit us a while.
An unreasonable expectation, I have found, is usually fueled by some insecurity that is the most prominent at the time, and for myself, I have always found that the most unreasonable expectation I fight on a daily basis is perfection. Fueled by the fear of being a bad human or not being good enough, I strive for perfection in many of the things that I do. For example, I expect myself to be there for my friends when they are having a bad day and giving them as much advice as I can. I expect that I always do the right thing so whenever I do make a mistake in my life, it almost seems devastating because I expect perfection out of myself. I’ve had to right size because I realized that the strive for perfection was fueled by the insecurities that continue to plague my mind. To know that they were interconnected helped me realize that if I soften my own need to be perfect, then the constant reminders of my own insecurities will lessen with it as it allows me to make mistakes without it feeling like the end of the world.
I have had a contractor do some work for me but for weeks now he doesn’t seem to be able to finish it so I reluctantly had to find someone else. I liked him. But things just stayed undone for too long.