The Thrill of It All

 

by Sulana Stone

 

The moment the tires hit the tarmac his youthful voice explodes in our ears, “Yeaaaaa!!! I’m here! I’m here! I’m in Arizona!!!!” Undaunted by his parents’ shushing, the little boy claps his hands gleefully!

 

The lad’s enthusiasm is contagious. With a chuckle in my heart and a smile on my face, I turn to see how other passengers are responding to this unexpected boisterous outburst. The moment is magic! Twinkling eyes and huge grins instantly unite strangers on a plane.

 

For the past 20 minutes, we’d been privy to the boy’s running narrative from his window view: “There’s a mountain. There’s a lake. Wow, there’s another lake. There’s a golf course. There’s lots of swimming pools. There’s a ball park. There’s tall buildings. I can see our house!”

 

Squirming uncomfortably in my skin, I wonder why I’m not as happy as the kid. My matter-of-fact, now-we’re-landing attitude sure isn’t as much fun. Why aren’t all of us passengers clapping and yelling “Yeaaaa! We’re in a new state! A new time! A new adventure! We’re here!”

 

Once Upon a Time

 

I remember when I was a kid, I was just as excited to go somewhere as the little boy. I was as thrilled to go somewhere new as I was to go to a place I’d been before many times. Once upon a time life was an exciting adventure. Where’d my zest for living go?

 

A moment of contemplation reveals that my thrill is hidden under layers of disappointment. And I have lots of evidence and reasons to feel let down, betrayed, fooled, hurt. My first husband wasn’t sensitive enough. My second husband didn’t love me enough. My numerous jobs weren’t all I wanted them to be. Friendships weren’t all that satisfying. Yep. I feel disappointed. And I intuitively know that these disappointments are covering up my once-youthful exuberance for living.

 

Wanna Have Some Fun?

 

Let’s play for a minute. Like kids! With an open mind in the spirit of adventure. Let’s take off to explore the State of Disappointment. If you play like a child it’s actually a pretty cool place! It’s a place of fresh opportunity and freedom.

 

Imagine, if you will, that you have a 7 p.m. reservation at your favorite restaurant. You’re with someone whose company you truly enjoy. You arrive right on time. Then you’re informed that the restaurant had you down for the prior evening … and tonight there are no tables available for the next three hours. You feel angry, frustrated, hungry! Bottom line: you’re disappointed.

 

Now we’ve arrived in the State of Disappointment. Did you ever consider what creates this State? What is the State of Disappointment made out of? Like a curious child, let’s take a peek at disappointment from another point of view.

 

The prefix “dis” means not, absence of, undo, do the opposite of, deprive of, remove. “Appointment” means an arrangement to do something or meet someone at a particular time and place. Bottom line: disappointment means that there’s no appointment. You have no appointment. Yes, you thought you had an appointment. Yet in reality, you don’t.

 

Up Close and Personal

 

Now let’s take a look at my life from the fresh point of view that there actually was no appointment. How might my feelings about being dis-appointed change for the better? How could seeing that there was no appointment in the first place help dispel sadness and anger and encourage happiness?

 

Examining my feelings of dis-appointment with my husbands, jobs and friends, I see that in the beginning I was happy. By living my life, I learned, grew and changed. Other people changed. Situations changed. Then at some point dis-appointment crept in. In other words, the initial appointment was over. The appointment—the mutual value—that brought us together in the first place was done, complete, finished, fulfilled. The time came to make another appointment.

 

With people, perhaps we’ll make a new appointment to reevaluate our purpose together, the way we relate, how we communicate, what we do together. Perhaps now there’s a fresh, new purpose for being together and it is useful to make some adjustments to the relationship. Or it may be that our original appointment is complete and it’s time to move on.

 

With a job it’s time to reevaluate the way we do the job and how we might share more of our natural talent within the same setting. Or it may be time to change jobs. In any event, the original appointment is complete.

 

It’s not beneficial to anyone to keep trying to make an old agreement or expired situation work. No one did anything wrong. People and situations naturally evolve and shift. That’s all. It’s just time for something new!

 

Make a Fresh Appointment with Life

 

In reviewing your life through the playful eyes of innocence, can you allow yourself to see that the feeling of dis-appointment signals the fact that there actually is no longer an appointment? That the appointment you “thought” you had is over? And that you’ve been draining your joy of living by trying to keep an appointment that no longer exists? 

 

Now you can open up to a fresh State. A State of Fun. Fulfillment. Excitement!

 

When moving on to your next appointment, you just might hear your innocent inner kid yelling, “Yeaaaa! I’m in a new State! A new time! A new adventure! I’m here! I’m here!”

 

 

 

About the author: Sulana Stone, personal life coach, animal communicator, vision quest guide and Matrix Energetics Practitioner, assists people to discover and express their life purpose through private sessions and workshops. She provides hot tips and fresh articles for people who want more love in life, yearn for a more fulfilling job, or seek a purpose beyond the mundane. Contact her at www.TalkWithNature.com, [email protected], 602.992.1538.