I think there’s a principle in Eastern philosophy that when you remove desire that it leads to peace or happiness. I’m not sure if desire is really the word, I would use for it. I think I would use the word expectation. Desire sounds more like hope to me, as in my heart’s desire. It is that thing that I would love to attain, but I’m not sure if I would ever get it. Expectation, on the other hand, sound more like what I think is going to happen.
We all have expectations. I know that some people want to disagree, but the easiest explanation is to just think of tomorrow morning. Unless you know you are going to die tonight, then without thinking about it, you have the expectation that you are going to wake up tomorrow morning. There are thousands of these little expectations that we have every day that we just take for granted. When tragedy strikes, some of those expectations are taken away.
Maybe the answer isn’t to remove all expectations, but to realize they exist and to be mindful of them. To be able to be thankful for all our blessings and to understand that part of life is that blessings aren’t constant. Nothing is constant except the inconsistency of life.
I believe that God wants us to live in the moment understanding how beautiful everything around us really is because it isn’t going to last and in the years to come when it is gone, maybe we can treasure what we had. That’s the deal. The joy that I have today is part of my sorrow in the future and if I am blessed God will grant me peace in it.
My faith saved me. May God’s peace reside in all of our hearts.
