210 Days ’til 40: What Do You Wish For???

I wish people would love everybody else the way they love me. It would be a better world. ~ Muhammad Ali

I only wish that ordinary people had an unlimited capacity for doing harm; then they might have an unlimited power for doing good. ~ Socrates

I wish I had an answer to that because I’m tired of answering that question. ~ Yogi Berra

It takes as much energy to wish as it does to plan. ~ Eleanor Roosevelt

I wish I could write as mysterious as a cat. ~ Edgar Allan Poe

I wish my name was Brian because maybe sometimes people would misspell my name and call me Brain. That’s like a free compliment and you don’t even gotta be smart to notice it. ~ Mitch Hedberg

We cannot wish for that we know not. ~ Voltaire

I am neither bitter nor cynical but I do wish there was less immaturity in political thinking. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

My first wish is to see this plague of mankind, war, banished from the earth. ~ George Washington

Be the change that you wish to see in the world. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

The only difference between a wish and a prayer is that you’re at the mercy of the universe for the first, and you’ve got some help with the second. ~ Jodi Picoult, Sing You Home

Wish it, believe it, and it will be so. ~ Deborah Smith, Alice at Heart

I love it when I come across wishing sites…. you know the ones… with pennies or other coins piled up, often in water, and fill of dreams.  It seems that many of these dreams are those of young people, but not all.  Sometimes I pause and wonder about the symbolism connected with each coin.  Each one representing a wish or dream, some large and some small – some with faith and others following a fad.

Each coin tells a story that I will never know.  Behind each coin is a child, or grandparent, brother, mother, father, sister, aunt, uncle, cousin, friend………. each coin has a face we never see.

Sometimes I like to create my own narratives….. perhaps I will see someone toss a coin and I wonder what their life may be like…..  based on my stereotypes of them (male/female, clothing, etc.) I could create a rather detailed fictional account (completely inaccurate, of course) of what they were wishing for………

Or perhaps I could focus on my own wishes.  My wishes have evolved greatly throughout my life…… and are often representative of a particular snapshot of time I am living.  For example, in my childhood I may have wished for a family to sweep me way (particularly if my parents were having a rougher patch).  As I grew up, my wishes changed….  In college I was idealistic and energetic – my wishes were about changing the world……. and as I got older I suddenly just wished someone would change the oil in my car (just kidding)……. As I got older my wishes morphed into children and career aspirations.  Now I tend to wish that I will stay challenged in my profession (easy in my current position) and that my partner and I make good financial decisions so that we will be able to support ourselves in our old age…… no more wishes for my own talk show (though that still remains my ultimate fantasy!)

Today, 210 days ’til 40, I am happy to be able to wish and dream.  I keep it real and I know which wishes I need to pursue, and which ones are there to give me the gift of imagining a different reality.

~400daystil40