Bated Breath: Day 19

I love that feeling of anticipation: when you know something’s coming and you know it’s going to be good. In fact, today I considered – in a moment of conversation, in which I waited for a response with bated breath – that I could live from one bated breath to the next. Except that that could be setting the scene for one to pass out!

We’ve all felt it before: the feeling of your stomach tightening, the breath you can hardly take in, the smile that you can’t fight from pulling on your mouth.

Under other circumstances, these reactions might be considered the onset of an anxiety attack. But excitement and anticipation are the stuff of dreams: not really knowing how something you care about could turn out, but feeling so strongly inside how amazing it could be. When your heart is full of this warmth, your body gets giddy, as if all the good things are already happening - and you’re just there to watch it unfold.

It’s this kind of anticipation that, in regular doses, is an experience of real joy.

Wouldn’t it be something to have a day that is a series of giddy surprises, like getting mysterious presents throughout the day? You wake up and find a present for you out on the coffee table in the morning. And then there’s another gift for you on your desk when you come back from lunch. Oh, and another little gift on your dashboard that you get to open in your car before you leave the office. There’s one on your doorstep as you enter the house. And one set on your bed before you sleep at night. You never know where or when the little presents are going to pop up! And when you close your eyes, you smile, wondering what gift will be in the living room in the morning… .

If we can choose our attitude – and we can – I would choose this one. I would choose anticipation. And maybe that’s what the Month of Inspiration is all about: living from one moment to the next, excited about what is about to unfold.