Anticipation…

It’s week five of our private calligraphy group and the challenge this week was ‘Anticipation”. We were encouraged to create something that exemplifies or illustrates what we re looking forward to happening. A trip, a season, a change, anything to do with waiting and anticipating.

I could not get the old ketchup commercial and the Carly Simon lyrics out of my head. I thought about illustrating a ketchup bottle, but didn’t want to do another graphic, so I created this. In the middle of the word I added pearlescent green ink to my pen nib to see how it would change the ink. Anticipation is all about implementing a change and then waiting to see what will happen. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t.

We’re five weeks into the new year. Are you still working on your resolutions, or have you given up? Are you working towards change or have simply succumb to life as you know it? Anticipation is waiting, hoping, looking forward to, and wishing for – all assume forward movement. Anticipation means giving ourselves the idea that something is coming, something is on it’s way, something is going to happen. We may know or we may not know. The sense of knowing and the sense of the unknown are just as thrilling.

For people who have control issues, not knowing can be frustrating and fearful. If they can’t control it they may avoid it. But what fun is life if you always know what is going to happen? Getting lost, exploring, going in an unknown direction are the moments when we discover something new. We learn our own capacity for change, and all too often face things we thought we were too inexperienced or weak to handle. And THAT is when we are surprised by the wonderful things we discover about ourselves and the world.

Anticipation means we have something to look forward to – a trip, an adventure, a class, a project, anything we can imagine. We have something we can’t wait to happen, arrive or mix up our daily lives. We anticipate what might happen – the good, the bad and the ugly – and we let our minds grasp all the consequences of all that is coming.

So what are you anticipating? What are you looking forward to with hope or dread? What is coming up for you that will change you world? I hope you have something to look forward to, even if it is just a new day tomorrow.