Disappointment - An Important Life Lesson

I wrote this post weeks ago...but never posted it.  For some reason, today's felt like a good day to share it with you.  Enjoy! *********** It's so hard to face disappointment sometimes.  We have expectations, hopes, dreams, and desires, and when they aren't fulfilled (or at least not in the way we envisioned they would be), we get disappointed.  We experience sadness.  Sometimes for just a few moments.  Other times for a lot longer.   But the older I get and now that I'm a mom, I realize how important it is for us all to experience disappointment...even as much as we don't like it...because when we're disappointed, we realize how great things were...or how good things will be again.   We have the choice to be thankful, even in the midst of disappointment.   We can learn to hope and trust...to strive for something different or something better.   We can learn what didn't work or what we didn't like, and we can find a new goal or purpose or vision.   And we can push ourselves to take risks or change behaviors to...Improve things.  Make things better.  Or take things back to normal.   We experienced disappointment first-hand, through the eyes of Mya, a couple of weeks ago.  You see, our family was beyond blessed last year to experience free admission to a local amusement park for its last 45-minutes all of last summer and fall.  Mya rode her first merry-go-round, tilt-a-whirl, flume and many more rides...and experienced great joy!  Because this park is so close to our house, we spent dozens of evenings visiting the park, riding rides, and enjoying the entertainment of their live music and characters.   We literally were counting down the days 'til this park opened for the 2013 season.  When the time came, we loaded up and ventured to the park.  We entered the park and waited at the gate for the 'okay' to pass through.  We listened to the music.  Pointed to the rides.  Created a plan for what ride Mya wanted to go on first.  We were so excited.   But while we waited to enter, a friendly employee greeted us; she must have recognized our purpose in waiting to pass through the gates.  She then informed us that their policy had changed.  That it was no longer free to enter the park for those final 45-minutes.   Our hearts sunk.   Mya had no idea what was going on.  So we needed to tell her.  She began to question why we weren't going in yet.  And in that split-second, we couldn't sugar-coat anything.  We had to tell her the truth.  The honest truth.  And we did.  You could see the sadness fill her eyes; the excitement drain from her face and body.  She understood what was happening.  She was clearly disappointed.   ********* In the weeks leading up to this moment, Mya's behavior was far from perfect.  She wasn't feeling well, and her behavior reflected that.  It was draining as her parents.  And we weren't sure what to expect when we'd share this news with her.  But we knew we had to just tell her the truth: No park for us.   And she proved us wrong.   She handled it with as much grace as a two-year old can.  Questions and sadness.  But no tantrum and no anger.  And in the midst of this disappointment, she was okay.  She pulled through it.  She was still sad...which is understandable and okay...but she didn't let it ruin her evening.  When given the option, she became excited to even visit another local community park that same night.   Because we got so used to just going to that amusement park, we may have been taking that blessing for granted.  And it was good for Mya (and us, too) to realize that we don't always get what we want.  That life doesn't always go as planned.  And we can choose to still be happy and thankful, even when life disappoints us.   We are grateful for the memories of last summer and are hopeful for the new and different memories that will be created during our summer and fall evenings this year.   And so...although, disappointment was a sad life lesson for Mya to learn, we're thankful that even such disappointments can enable us to experience even greater joys in the days ahead.  And can even make an event...like visiting an amusement park...that much more exciting when our family visits one again in the future.