It’s often heard in the rooms: “An expectation is just a premeditated resentment.” If I’m feeling discord at work today, can I sift through my own thoughts and actions to find the expectation that is giving me trouble? Maybe I think everyone should follow the same etiquette that I do in shared spaces like kitchens. Maybe it’s that someone should have told me what they were working on, or when something was happening. Have I allowed these shoulds to wreck my serenity for the day?

I don’t have to accept unacceptable behavior. But just for today, can I accept that humans are going to do human things? Whatever my co-workers are doing, they’re probably not doing it just to hurt me. Something in their own lives could be troubling them, or they simply lack the ability to do everything the way I think it should be done, or the way I think it should be done is not even that great to begin with.

Today I will try to strip my expectations down to the minimum. This will make it much easier to respond to life peacefully, without losing my faith that God is at work and that good things can happen with or without my control.