I was watching a hockey game last night. There’s nothing particularly new about that. As it happens, I was watching it after it happened because I had waited for Mrs MoM to head to bed before I fired it up. I know she isn’t always down to watch the copious amount of sports that I consume, so I decided to hold off on the game and the NASCAR race. As I was watching the game I got a text from a friend that simply said “Go Kings Go”. Well alright!

My friend was watching live. A win would put us up 3-1 in a best of seven series. I presumed that he saw the conclusion of the game and was sending his excitement in a text. Since I had several hours of sports to watch, I decided to fast forward through to the end of the game. As Vladimir Lenin put it “Trust but verify”. (Reagan used the phrase when negotiating with the Soviet Union, but he didn’t make it up).

I was very pleased until I watched the closing minutes of the game. After pulling their goalie, the other guys scored to tie the game. After a long over time period my team gave up the winning goal. Instead of a commanding lead, we are now tied going into game 5. Gaaaa!

Expectations are preconceived resentments. I thought I knew something, but I had misread the clues.

In my recovery I need to be cautious about having expectations of people and events. Remember that second step thing about not having control? Yeah, that still applies even when I have moved on to other steps. It is important to temper my expectations. So now instead of the possibility just one game left in the series, there are at least two. On the bright side, that’s more hockey I get to watch!

I still have dreams of winning another Championship, but for now, I will sit down to focus on Game 5 and watch my team…

—Rise Up!!