Expectations are difficult to let go, but it is necessary to let them go. They will always let you down. Whether it is an old friend that is in town and doesn’t call or it is a plan that didn’t come to fruition. Expectations, we have to remember, are our own. They were not done to us. We chose them ourselves.

That is not to say that one’s word is not to be held, or that we should not be good to our own word. Expectations are not like that. Expectations are more like hope. They grow because of a desire we have or how we feel. One’s word is one’s promise. It is integrity and character. One’s word defines them. It makes them who they are. Expectations are simply a desire for something that may or may not be true.

Friendships begin as expectations, and on those rare occasions they blossom into true relationships. A friend’s word is something to be trusted and to be held in high esteem. The expectation of friendship is an illusion. Sometimes a plant grows. Sometimes it dies.

We might like to think that our expectations are based upon truths. But, they are not. Just as friendships must grow into trusting relationships, expectations must be understood as what they are: a hope for something with the understanding of that nothing may be.