Noun 1. Disappointment - a feeling of dissatisfaction that results when your expectations are not realized


[The Master's power is like this.
He lets all things come and go
effortlessly, without desire.
He never expects results;
thus he is never disappointed.
He is never disappointed;
thus his spirit never grows old.]
Tao Te Ching, verse 55.

My heart is smitten down, and withered like grass. I am even as a sparrow that sitteth alone on the housetop--Psalm. cii. 4, 6. It’s difficult, I guess, to imagine something more bedraggled than this poor ‘sparrow’..., yet how often have I felt like him..., and it seems that every day, the disappointments keep piling up from a myriad different sources, causes, etc., no matter, though, the result is the same, more lines on our visages, more hair turning grey, less spring in our step..., which equals the harbinger of dreaded, feeble, worn-out, dry and withered... old age, the enemy that is much worse than ‘death’.

Far be it from me, to offer any advice, since, I consider myself the ‘king’ of disappointment, but the Tao, quoted above gives us an intriguing antidote to this mess,
“She/he never expects results;
thus he/she is never disappointed. Thus her/his spirit never grows old”
Wow! What a concept, to never expect results! OK, friends, I don’t know about you, but, for ‘lil-ol-me’ to reach this stage I feel I need to be a demi-god, but, what’s the harm in trying?

So, the million-dollar question: is this practical, is this doable in our frenetic ‘reality’? I think so, I think so..., maybe...
Last evening I went into one of these exquisite respite-zones, where although, like Atlas, I had ‘the world’ on my shoulders, I sat down alone in a cafe in Limassol and gazed out to sea, and I thought of the words of the Tao:
“She/he never expects results;
thus he/she is never disappointed. Thus her/his spirit never grows old”
Don’t know about you, but, I don’t wanna grow old...

Immediately, as if a gift from the gods, this ineffable serenity and joy and freedom from stress and responsibility, and a silly boyish grin wrote itself on my face, and with a forgotten spring in my step, I went home, feeling as if Divinity itself was carrying me tenderly and lovingly and blissfully in its holy hands, rescuing me from the hyperbolic stress I have been experiencing for the last 30 days or so..., and suddenly, I knew that all would be well, I know, I know, I have no rational exegesis, but, hell, who cares???

I don’t know how things will turn out, but, I want to try and remind myself a thousand times a day, of the words of the Tao, so I can enter this zone of serenity and bliss more and more and be the slave of stress less and less...
Love and light amigos...