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In Posts #107 to Post #110 (plus four midweek bonus posts), we explored the mystery of disappointment.
I would classify posts on disappointment as serious. I readily admit to taking things seriously; hopefully you haven’t felt a “heaviness of spirit” in my inquiry or in yourself as you contemplated the role of disappointment in your life.**
We discern what needs to be taken seriously when we pay attention. Paying attention to disappointment yields benefits because it helps us understand more of what we experience.
Jeffrey B. Rubin*** believes that one of Freud’s towering insights was that people grow ill—and suffer from—experiences they don’t understand.
Paying attention to feelings of disappointment enables us to spend time with our experiences. The “understood experience” leads to an appropriate response (anger, grief, regret) – and to knowledge that will guide us in the future.
Have you been paying attention to disappointment the last few weeks? I have. Paying attention has helped me recognize disappointment isn’t a disaster and doesn’t mean I did something wrong.
Let me know what you’ve learned about disappointment. What is your most common disappointment and how you manage it?
Thanks for exploring the mystery – Nicky Mendenhall
*Picture taken in Bali last April while barreling through the streets in a tour bus. I was disappointed I couldn’t have time with the massive masterpiece and grateful the out-the-window picture captured the strength and majesty evident driving by.
**Ideas integrated while reading May 3 poem in A Year With Rilke (2009). I would be happy to send you a copy of Rilke’s poem if you request by email.
***Rubin’s article found in Spring: A Journal of Archetype and Culture (2013).