The taste of anticipation

You know that iconic conversation near the end of Lord Of The Rings when Sam and Frodo were near the volcano:

Sam: "Do you remember the Shire, Mr Frodo? It’ll be spring soon and the orchards will be in blossom. And the birds will be nesting in the hazel thicket and they’ll be sowing the summer barley on the lower fields and eating the first strawberries with cream. Do you remember the taste of strawberries?

Frodo: “No Sam I can’t recall the taste of food nor the sound of water or the touch of grass.”

I feel like Frodo now when it comes to feeling hopeful for the future. The past 2 years of the pandemic had felt like his arduous journey into Mordor. I can’t remember the last time I looked forward to something. I can’t recall the taste of anticipation nor the sound of optimism or the touch of hope.

I recall how, before the pandemic, I used to create these beautiful countdown landing pages for my trips and life events. Search on Unsplash for a gorgeous image of the country I’m heading to. Create a Carrd countdown landing page. Publish and share. Refer to it constantly. Being able to see the days and hours counting down, inching ever closer to the D-Day filled me with a sense of anticipation. The days were bright, not just because the present is beautiful but there’s a beautiful future to look forward to.

I wish to daydream again. To feel future-hopeful again. To drink from that wellspring of optimism again.

Perhaps it’s time to try making these pages again. And in turn, to make the plans for such pages to exist. Countdown pages as a mechanism for engineering hope.

Anything to taste that anticipation again…