This could end up getting really maudlin and Kierkegaard-ish, especially if I let Dead Can Dance accompany my typing...

Expectations. Not really related, for 15 years I kept shop and much of what we sold was blown glass and handmade pottery we shipped all over the world. I had expectations that my packing would be good enough that everything would arrive in one piece because thousands of buyers had expectations that it would be so. I know what that unpacking feels like...

I believe I have fairly successfully settled into a state of not expecting anything... in spite of naysayers who insist that "If you expect nothing, that's precisely what you'll get: NOTHING." To which I counter than maybe I expect nothing, but that doesn't mean I don't hope for something. Expectations and hopes are related... and yet quite different.