Do you ever limit your joy because an experience is different that you expected?
Let me illustrate.
When my daughter was young, she had the opportunity to experience a week-long outdoor adventure camp.
The first year she attended she loved her experience!
She had made many friends.
One in particular was very special to her. They were near tears when they had to say goodbye.
The second year, as I picked my daughter up, she was happy, and said goodbye to this new group of friends, but without the depth of emotion as the previous year.
On the way home she talked about the people and the experiences with enthusiasm.
But since her leave taking was different from the previous year, I worried if she might be sad that she hadn’t developed a close relationship with any one person like she had the year before.
To ease my mind, I expressed my concern and asked how she felt.
My young daughter then taught me a valuable lesson with her response.
She replied, “Mom, it was a different kind of good.”
I was expecting her to want the same experience that she had the year before.
Instead, she wisely held no expectation other than to have a great experience, however it came.
How many times have I limited the joy of an experience because it didn’t follow my plan?
Do I judge an experience as lacking or less, because it wasn’t what I thought I wanted?
Do I have the ability to recognize that though different, an experience might be better than what I was expecting? And that, either way, it can still be good?
A different kind of good is a great thing to be open to.
I invite you to consider that though something may not be as you planned, it might still be a “different kind of good.”
Much love,
