By Gonny 
There’s a strange, hollow ache that sometimes hits us without warning.
Someone says something… and it cuts deeper than expected.
You open your heart just a little… and what comes back is silence.
Or worse….correction. Dismissal.
The word that follows is one we all know too well: disappointment.
But have you ever wondered where that word actually comes from?
Let’s pause for a second and play.
What does “disappointment” really mean?
If you look closely, it’s made of three parts:
dis- (a reversal, or undoing), -appoint- (from Latin appointare: to assign, to fix something in place), and -ment (the state or condition of).
So disappointment is…quite literally…“the condition of something no longer being fixed where you expected it to be.”
A role that wasn’t fulfilled. An outcome that didn’t arrive.
A hope that quietly packed its bags and left, without even a note.
In ACIM C29,VII, we find this stunning line:
“Seek not outside yourself. For it will fail, and you will weep each time an idol falls.”
And what is disappointment, if not the sound of an idol falling?
When we expect something outside ourselves to give us peace, love, validation, or safety… we’ve just handed over our inner kingdom to a cardboard crown. The ego whispers: “That person should treat you like this. Your work should be seen. Your family should know better.” And we listen. Oh, how we listen.
But here’s the catch:
When that ‘outside’ doesn’t respond the way we appointed it to… disappointment hits.
Not because they failed, but because we believed it was their job to fulfill us.
As ACIM gently reminds us:
“What if it is not there? Do you prefer to be right or happy?”
Many of us learned early what it meant to “disappoint.”
Perhaps we heard it from a parent’s tired voice:
“I’m not angry… I’m just disappointed.”…
Ah, the masterstroke of guilt.
We internalize that disappointment isn’t just a feeling , it’s a judgment. A measure of our worth. And if we’re not careful, we carry that script for the rest of our lives.
But here’s the miracle: what if that wasn’t the truth?
What if disappointment was never about them or us, but about the illusion we assigned to idols…those shaky placeholders for real love?
Disappointment, then, becomes a pointer. A bell ringing in an empty house, saying:
“There’s nothing here for you, but that’s good. Because it was never your Home.”
It’s not a punishment.
It’s an invitation to come back within.
As the Course says:
“Seek not outside yourself for it will fail, and you will weep each time an idol falls. Heaven cannot be found where it is not.”
The ego sets up the game.
It hands us a script full of roles: parents should act this way, friends should say that, lovers should read our minds, God should reward our efforts.
But none of them signed the contract.
And when they don’t play along…we call it…..(again)disappointment.
The truth?
We were expecting a miracle from something that never had the power to give it.
Let’s flip it !
What if we treated disappointment as a sacred nudge…not a wound?
A gentle hand on the shoulder whispering:
“Come back. You were looking outside again.” And when we do return,
even for a moment, we find a stillness that never moves.
A joy that doesn’t come and go.
A Love that cannot disappoint…because it was never appointed to do anything but be.
Lesson 133 tells us:
“I will not value what is valueless.”
No more idols.
No more appointments with illusion.
Just one quiet meeting… with your Self.
With love and light,
G.