W is for...

Wishes.

“If wishes were horses, beggars would ride.” James Kelly's Scottish Proverbs, Collected and Arranged in 1721

“When you wish upon a star, makes no difference who you are. Anything your heart desires will come to you.” Jiminy Cricket in Walt Disney’s Pinnochio, 1940

I’ll be honest; I would have overpopulated the world with horses all by myself.  And I wished on enough stars during my youth, and didn’t get what my heart desired (although clearly the importance was negligible, since I can’t remember anything I wished for).

All parents make wishes on behalf of their children, at some point.  Parents of children with challenges wish in less lofty directions, sometimes; instead of wishing for Ivy League colleges, we may just wish we could get through a week without a call from the school.  Accepting our lot in life – the trials along with the blessings – doesn’t mean we shouldn’t indulge in a little dream now and then.  What is important is owning your wishes, realizing they are yours and not necessarily those of your children.

I can spend a moment or two wishing for a music or ballet scholarship, or a geology internship (and those things are much better for my mental health than worrying about raising bail or learning a child is a homeless indigent – as long as we’re being honest, here).  What will make me the happiest, though, is knowing my children are competent and responsible within whatever capacity they have to understand those concepts.  What more could any parent really wish for?

Since the holiday season is upon us, I’m finishing up last-minute gifts, including knitting a few bumpy, scrubby, seed-stitch washcloths.  For years, I wished I could get through a winter without my hands ending up cracked and bleeding.  In 2008 our new neighbor told me about the soap she makes, and I am happy to report that wish, at least, finally came true.  :-)

Cotton seed-stitch washcloths and oatmeal clove soap from The Fourth Button