To have or not to have hopes and expectations

Written with love, sorrow, and hope...

People need hope in order to live, or at least to lead fairly happy lives, otherwise life can seem futile. However expectations are different - crossing the line from wishing for something to happen to believing it should and/or will happen. And that can be dangerous  - when expectations are not met it can lead to strong feelings of frustration, and sometimes to feelings of devastation or despair.

But there is often a fine line between the two, such as when it appears something you have long hoped for is going to actually occur. As it seems to draw closer to reality, one begins to believe it will actually become reality, one begins to expect it will happen. Can one and should one try to prevent those expectations from developing? Is that even humanly possible beyond a certain point? Yet that is when expectations are most dangerous - as one draws nearer to an event they hope for and which it begins to seem realistically might happen, if something happens and it does not actualize, the pain and devastation are so much the greater for having allowed oneself to begin to have expectations. By doing so one has opened oneself to the risk of great pain. And yet can or should that be avoided? Is it even possible to achieve great gain without opening oneself to great risk? Hope and even expectations seem necessary - but they are not for the cowardly.

If and when one's expectations regarding something important in which they are emotionally invested are dashed, how does one who has suffered such devastation overcome it and move on? How can they allow themselves to have hope and try again, to open themselves to risk again? How can they not? Great courage is required to move on in whatever direction they choose.