Wishes… some thoughts and rambling…
In another online group, we’ve been discussing wishes. There’s a lot of people who are all hyped on learning the steps to attract positive forces to grant your wishes. Personally, I make a wish on the turkey wishbone every year, on falling stars, and when blowing out the candles on my birthday cake (soon to be a single candle since shortly we’ll be able to cook the cake with the candle heat). Anyway, this discussion made me think about wishes and the granting thereof. Ever since I heard the Rolling Stone song, I always hear, “You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you might find, you get what you need” whenever I think of wishes (or prayers for that matter).
If you stop and think about it. Wishes are at the root of a lot of fairy tales and seldom do things turn out for the wisher or wishee. Sometimes it’s because the wish was not specific enough and other times it was because the person making the wish didn’t really know what it was they wanted. Even if you do know exactly what you want — your conscious and unconscious mind agree — would you really want that event/thing/whatever to be the result of a wish? People seldom appreciate things that they get free or too easily — that’s why there is often a nominal fee for service for things that would otherwise be given away. Don’t believe me. Well think about it, if someone came up to you and gave you a ‘free’ flashlight, I’ll wager the first thing you’d do is try to figure out what the catch was or what was wrong with it.
But going back to wishes…think about those rash wishes in the heat of anger or hurt. None of them should ever come true. I know that I’ll be eternally grateful that all of those anger-fed wishes dissipated like morning mist in sunshine. Then there’s the one to continue the wonderful time or good feeling forever — remember those. In the clear light of morning, would you really want eternal happiness? Really? Can there be happiness without sadness to let us know the difference? Most things come with polar opposites: health/sickness, love/hate, sunshine/rain…
Maybe wishes are just place holders to allow us to dream but not necessarily to get a free ride. Satisfaction and pride comes more from achieving what you want by working for it. Not that a bit of help along the way would be turned away — sometimes you need a helping hand. But once a job is done — doesn’t it feel good to know you did it? Would it feel as good if you just twitched your nose and the job was done with no effort at all?
Wishes should be the embodiment of good hopes and positive thoughts towards others. But, then perhaps I just need to think about this wishing business a bit more. Should wishes come true — always, never, sometimes?