Wishes

Wishes

When I was about ten years old, I was stopped in the school hallway by a classmate. She asked me to make a wish and share it with her. I didn’t play along. I supplied no wish. “I know it won’t come true,” I said.

The first wish that had come to my mind was that a much-loved uncle who had recently died, very suddenly, had not died at all. But even at that age, I understood, that wishes had no power over what already was. The past cannot be re-written. Don’t waste your wishes there. Cast them out in what might still be.

The realm of wishes is the future. Wishes apply to what lies undiscovered before us. I don’t mean the fairy-tale variety of wish that requires magic. I don’t think I have ever believed in magic. I believe in cause and effect.

Wishes are hopes for the future, and we do have some control over how things play out for us there. But wishing doesn’t make it so. A wish by itself is no more than a formless breath of air. Buddha asked: If all good things were to be obtained by wishes, who here would lack them? Instead, he said, follow the path of right practice. It’s only by steering ourselves into an effectual headspace, with follow-up, that wishes might be granted.

This does require belief, but it’s belief in yourself and your capabilities. Consider the wishes in the D. Simone quote below. Every line implies a decision on our part.

“May Light always surround you;
Hope kindle and rebound you.
May your Hurts turn to Healing;
Your Heart embrace Feeling.
May Wounds become Wisdom;
Every Kindness a Prism.
May Laughter infect you;
Your Passion resurrect you.
May Goodness inspire
your Deepest Desires.
Through all that you Reach For,
May your arms Never Tire.”

― D. Simone