Noun. Sometimes turned verb.

Excitement: Being present while imagining a possible future. I believe it is possible to do both. To acknowledge both without taking away from either one. I also believe their root feelings are more similar than we think. Being present feels like temporary infinite joy. Oxymoronic joy. And imagining a possible future feeds this temporary infinity. It plays with it. Nothing is guaranteed. We know this. We feel this truth underneath our skin. And yet, excitement also bubbles in our human bellies.

Is there a difference between excitement and expectation? Yes. I think expectations are often blind. They grow from shaky foundations and illusions we want to believe in. Expectations cannot see truth; they actively ignore it. We find ourselves in arguments, in tears, in sticky quicksand when we let expectations call the shots.

Excitement then, feels light. It doesn't burden the outcome. It is patient. 
It waits to see what happens and amplifies existing happiness, respect, 
joy, love. If things turn sour along the way, excitement dissolves 
in the background. It can be painful, of course. But we do not 
cling to the disappointment that comes with high expectations. 
Sometimes though, we cannot stop expectations from forming. 
Can we then transform expectation into excitement? 
Remove the heaviness and seriousness 
from an expectation? Free the idea and ourselves 
in the process. Maybe one can try during one of those 
moments of fleeting infinity I've been hearing about.