Expectation vs Hope

Expectation

by Olivia Jeffries

"Expectation refuses to permit wonderings or doubt, and so it is closed off, final, and frozen. When an expectation is not met, it dies. Sometimes, with grace, hope is born from the rubble of dashed expectations. More often, the death is simply denied, reality is ignored, and another expectation--just as rigid and just as impossible--is forged. Without some birth of hope, each remanufactured expectation is covered with a thicker coat of cynicism and paranoia. Expectation is brittle and can only be shored up by delusion, but hope is soft and willing to suffer pain.

"Hope is flexible, willing to change or even to be given up if need be."

May, Gerald G. The Awakened Heart. San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1991. 80-81.