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‘I Wish I May, I Wish I Might …’

I’m sure at one time or another many of us have heard, and/or remember, the childhood poem we recited when we saw the first night star as a kid looking up at the night sky. Its title was “Star Light, Star Bright.” If you haven’t heard it, or have forgotten it, the poem, by an anonymous author goes like this:

“Star Light, star bright,

First star I see tonight,

I wish I may, I wish I might,

Have this wish I wish tonight.”

And then we wished upon that star.

I’m sure we’ve all had wish lists that started as far back as we can remember. I know I had mine, still do and I add to it constantly. I know all my wishes aren’t going to come true, but I’ll never stop wishing. Wishes give us hope. Wishes motivate us. Wishes can make us strive to make things happen. Wishes can make us as innocent as children blowing out candles on their birthday cakes, and contrary to some people who believe wishes don’t come true, some wishes can actually become reality.

Now before you think I’m delusional, and am living in a fantasy world, I don’t believe that if I make a wish that Tinkerbell will fly over my head, sprinkle some fairy dust on me, and then “Abracadabra,” my wish will come true.

Wishes come at all ages. When we were little children we wished for things like a new bike, or that special toy we hoped Santa would bring us, or a pony, things that young children commonly wish for upon that star, or before blowing out those candles.

As we got older, our wishes changed to that of maybe making the team, or wishing we didn’t get called on in class, or that we passed the school year, or to get to go to an amusement park, before we pulled our end of the Thanksgiving Wishbone.

In our early teens, we tended to wish for updated cell phones (in today’s times…in my early teen days there were no cell phones so we wished for pogo sticks, baseball equipment, skateboards, stuff like that), or that that special person wouldn’t say no when we asked her/him to go to the Malt Shop (oops…just dated myself), maybe it’s the Mall now. We may have also wished the school year would pass fast, or that we wouldn’t need those braces/glasses the dentist/optometrist mentioned to our parents.

In our later teens, we wished that pimple would clear up, or that he would ask me to go steady (do kids still call it going steady?), or that she would go to the prom with me. We wished high school would end faster, and we wished we would be accepted at the college of our choice, or maybe get the job we wanted.

In our twenties, we wished we would get the career job we’d been preparing for these past few years. We wished he would propose, or that she’d accept our proposal. We wished we could get that house I/we wanted at a good price. We wished our children would be born healthy.

In our thirties we wished for a lot of the things some wished for in their twenties if they hadn’t reached them yet. Some wished for that new job or that promotion. We wished that receding hairline would start receding a little slower and that bulge around the middle would stop bulging and disappear before our very eyes.

In our forties, we gave up on the hair and bulge issues, and our wishes turned to our children, hoping their lives were turning out as they planned, but also wishing they can handle any possible disappointments that would come their way, God forbid. We wished they were okay health wise, financial wise, and job wise.

In our fifties, we wished we could recover well from the knee, or hip replacement we may have had. We wished some of those aches would go away, or at least subside. We wished the next ten to fifteen years would go faster so we could retire. We wished our grandkids would grow up healthy and would always be safe, be smart, and be happy. Sometimes we wished we never owned a home, but rented, so we wouldn’t have had to make, and/or pay for, the repairs that needed to be made.

Now, in our sixties, we wish time would slow down a bit, because Christmas seems to come too fast and that fixed income after retirement, doesn’t always keep up with the added finances life throws at us. We wish for good health for our children, our grandchildren, and our parents, (if they are still with us, and if they are not, we will often wish they were), and we wish for good health for ourselves so we can enjoy our retirement without any major problems with the three “P”s of our age group (Pain, Pills, and Poop.)

For me personally, though, as I have wished for since my twenties when I got my first career job, and I got married, and I became a parent, and I umpired baseball, and I coached baseball, softball, and football, and I was a friend, and my wish was/is that I would always be the best husband, father, grandfather, brother, brother-in-law, uncle, great-uncle, cousin, nephew, great-nephew, friend, teacher, coach, official, volunteer, and person that I could be. I wished for it back in my younger days, and I still wish for it now, and I will continue to wish for it for my remaining years on this earth. It’s a never ending wish and always will be, because I have so many flaws, many that may not be visible on the outside, but I know what they are, and I’m not satisfied that I haven’t done what is needed to make those flaws go away. I can’t just wish for them to go away, or ask Tinkerbell to sprinkle that magic dust to make them go away, I have to do it myself. “If it is to be, it is up to me.” So it’s time to stop wishing and keep working to get better, keeping the bar raised toward being the best that I can be.

Being 65 now, I don’t know what my future wishes will exactly be, but I think I have an idea. My guess is that some of my future wishes will include…well, maybe longer longevity. I’d like to think that I will continue wishing good things for my family, my friends, and me. I hope I will wish for peace in this country and the world, and that I’ll l wish people will be more tolerant and accepting of others. I hope I will wish peace of mind to those struggling mentally, that I will wish comfort to those suffering physically. I hope I will wish food for the hungry, shelter for the homeless, and hope for those who feel they are at the end of their rope. I hope I will wish companionship for the lonely, and that I will wish for protection for those who protect others. I’m hoping I will wish for conscientiousness and good judgement for our elected officials. I hope I will wish for the end of hate and the growth of love and forgiveness, and that I will wish for more kindness and compassion, and less violence and despair.

So I guess maybe I’ll find myself outside at dusk a little more often, hoping to see that first star every night, reciting that childhood poem, so I can get a jump on all the wishing I still have to do. Maybe I’ll see you out there too. I wish that will be the case.

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