At the end of this will be a link to a song that came

to mind when I first read this challenge.

Hope - is a strength of confident expression, one that leans toward wishing things would get better, or win the lottery, or having that man or woman fall in love with you. Hope is that key word for a son or daughter to go to college. Hope is fighting off a debilitating disease. Through hope, we gain strength, or at least we hope to.

Dream - isn't just the actual dreams we have at night that keep some of us wondering what the hell they meant. To dream, is the what if of all the tomorrows to come. Hit the lottery, finally pay off the mortgage, buy a new house (all of course on a modest paycheck). To dream of a better life for yourself and your children.

Want - this is a tangible word. I want to have a cup of coffee, I want to date him/her, I want a baby. These are all doable. You can even replace want with: crave, desire, and demand. That chocolate cake looks so good. What I wouldn't give to have him/her in my arms. I want you to finish the report by Monday. Three examples of crave, desire, and demand. When you look at it, even here, you wanted explanations for these words, Evelyn Dawn. Basically, it does point to one fact: we all want ... something.

Expect - or expecting, is something we presume will happen, if not now, perhaps in the near future. Expect the teacher to hand out more homework. Expect the relatives to show up on time for dinner. Expect other people to be reasonable during conversations. We expect others to be kind, but that could be expecting too much.

When you put this altogether, what is expected of us, is to hope we can write something the writer wants to be read, and that is a dream we all look forward to.

To put in in an easier perspective: all these things are a learning curve in life called knowledge.

As promised - the song: https://youtu.be/cu3SZvYV3Ho

When we hope, we wish for the future to be better, and it keeps us going.

When we dream, we feel something within ourselves and imagine what could be that.

When we want we demand something for our own joy in a way that can become desperate and pathetic, that nevr truly works.

When we expect, we think that we know everything, or, for those who are modest, know what’s coming this time, somehow.

Hope and dreams are the chance given to us to make our own lives better.

Wanting is greed for false happiness.

And expecting is the true thing that can go either way. It can make you work harder to prevent the negative things expected and make sure the possitive things expected come to pass, or it can make you sit back and watch the negative things happen and wait for the positive things to happen.

So make your hopes reality, be your dreams, limit your wants, and expect great things from yourself.

My parents always had high hopes for my future.

They told me I could be great.

They said I could spread my wings and fly,

Because they had high hopes for me.

I had dreams for my future.

I dreamed I could be anything

In reality I just wanted to be something.

My parents expected me to know what I wanted.

They raised me to dream…

But did they let me hope too much?

I wanted so much and dreamed of even more.

Now I’m stuck with my reality,

Wanting, hoping, and expecting my dreams to be out of reach.

Expectation is based on past experiences. You sense a pattern, and so you predict a result that corresponds with that pattern. To expect is to be practical.

Want is based on evolution. Wants are not needs; you can live without wants, yet wants will help you achieve new heights and become something more than you are now. To want is to desire growth.

Hope is based on things you cannot control. You hope for a bright future, for love, for your friend to make it home from work safely, even though there is nothing you can do to affect the outcome. To hope is to trust others.

Dreams are based in your mind. You see yourself accomplishing something, no matter how impossible, and your heart yearns for it, and you are willing to reach for it and make it possible. To dream is to be optimistic.

A dream is certainly worthy of that thousand words

Don’t expect

to find them here...

I’d like to make up the difference

one day to you

somehow for real

and only hope

to make it clear

* * *

The Difference Between I and I is...

I dream more than I really want

and when I awake

I dream

what I could never expect.

I expect what I don’t really want

and get

what I’d never dreamt!

I hold out hope

till the very end...

I am perpetually

in a knot...

always malcontent

***

Well... Now...

I was...

Hoping and

Dreaming...

Wanting and

now...

I'm Expecting!

***

06.15.20

Difference between Hoping, Dreaming, Wanting, and Expecting challenge @EvelynDawn

At first, I expected you to come back. I waited by the door every day after school believing that you would return. You fought with him, you guys always fought, but that couldn’t have been enough to drive you away. I waited there every day because I wanted to be the first person you saw when you returned. I imagined you opening the door and coming towards me with open arms. Then you would kiss be on the head and we’d build jigsaw puzzles together again. Soon, days turned into weeks and a part of me stopped believing, but another part of me told me to have faith. No matter how many times I was told you were gone for good, I still hoped you’d come back. I just had to be patient, if I was a good son you’d return, I just knew it. I did everything I could: I took out the trash, washed the dishes, and completed my homework. I even took care of Johnny’s chores, thinking my efforts would make you realize that I was worth it, but life moved on and I did too. I began to realize that despite how much faith I had, you wouldn’t come home. It didn’t matter though, I knew it was unrealistic, but I still wanted you home. I spent several nights crying wishing you never went away. Papa told me that there was nothing I could have done and that the blame lied with him. For a long time, I hated Papa for pushing you away. Then I came to realize I hated you more for leaving. Soon I didn’t even want you home anymore. If you didn’t care enough about me to return then why should I care about you? I rejected you and everything that reminded me of you. You left us. You hurt me. Despite that, I still dreamt of you. Your cascading brown hair, the blue eyes you gave me. In each of my dreams, you wore a warm smile and apologized for being gone for so long. In them, I didn’t care about all the mistakes you made. All that mattered was that we were together again. Once again I was happy in your arms, but then I would wake up and hate you all over again.

I wish there was a way to instantly record thoughts and memories. A way to preserve them so I could hold onto them in a notebook or a computer. But notebook pages can get soaked until you can't read the letters and computers can get soaked until you can't turn them on. Then you are left with soaked pages and empty metal and still, nothing is preserved. People can live every day of their lives an angel and still end up with their bodies rotting in the ground. I know nothing lasts forever, I do, but why can't I stop myself from wanting it to? There are no guarantees that after I'm gone people will remember to care. There are no guarantees that the life I remember living is the life I led. There are no guarantees that my little cog will do anything but turn furtively forever. I hope not, but that's all there is. Wishes, hopes, and dreams for a world in which I can hold onto everything. A world that will never be real. A world I wish I could expect.

Hoping to awaken from this nightmare,

Dreaming of a time when this will all be in the past,

Wanting to go back to the way things were, when I didn't know better,

Expecting things will be forever changed.

#votingmatters

#votingrights

#savedemocracy

#resist

#protest

Hope is what it's like to breathe, the endless air filling you lungs propelling you forward, allowing your body to begin it's journey to move towards impossible goals. To dream is to be human, to want something mystical and outside yourself, to ask of god, "what if?" To beg of the cosmos "Why not? Who could I be?" To transform yourself in a way, personal and impersonal without ever truly leaving. To expect is greed. It's rooted, it refuses to ask "What if?" But yearns for whatever it craves with a hungry maw that refuses to show how grateful it is. To expect is to be cared for, to be loved by the selfless, to never voice your thankfulness to the universe whom provides.

between us

there is something that dances

chaotic at times

delicate at others

raging when it needs to be enough

to hope is to want, and to want, is to dream

but the expectations are the ones we set

the ones we make come from somewhere

a dream is a something that doesn't require concious continuation

a hope is a want that has manifested in our bodies till we know no different

but what we want

what we want, is magical

because in most cases we have no idea where it comes from

and one day it sits down right in out lap

until it is absorbed by our stomachs and it turns into butterflies