The Voice of Wishes

Winter brings with it such a time of magic and wishing. As a little girl, I yearned and wished for that first snowfall. To me there was nothing more wondrous than to see those first snowflakes and then to awaken to a blanket of untrodden sheets of white. Making snowmen and sledding down hills was the most fun I remember having as a child. Even though it was cold, I was unburdened with driving and shovels and paying the heating bill. Sometime its just nice to remember being a kid.

As I grew up my wishes became more things that I wanted for myself than for something as sweet and simple as that first snowfall. I am short so I wished to be taller; I wished I was thinner; I wished for my hair to be thicker or my ears to be smaller. My wishes extended into wishing for more, or better, or different. I had a friend once tell me that if wishes were fishes, we would all have nets! As exasperatingly frustrating as it was to hear this, he was right. I am a learning the importance of listening to my secret wishes; they tell me so much about who I am and the direction I am headed. If it's a smart wish (like wanting to be in better shape) that is something I can DO something about. If it is a wish to be taller, well that is just silly and wastes my emotional, mental and physical energy.

I know that great teachers have graced our planet and told us who we are and what we do is unique and more important than what we have or what we look like. It's a challenging task to do that given the media blitz that can carry wishing to a new level, especially this time of year. I have come to this: my wish for you (and for me) is to stop wishing we were taller or smaller or leaner or fatter or richer or different. My wish for all of us is to simply wish that we could appreciate and love who we uniquely are, with all our quirks and shortcomings, but more importantly with all our gifts and talents. Let us not bury those talents under distractions or excuses or habits or senseless wishing that hide them away. Whether you celebrate with a tree or not, may you awaken Christmas morning and may all your wishes come true!