If Wishes Came True.

Yesterday we had a neighborhood playgroup outing to a park. One of the moms had brought cupcakes, party hats, and balloons to celebrate one of the little tykes turning one! My boys are very into any ritual or process, so spent a long time in the shelter, and inspected spouted coolers, balloons taped to table, party hats, bags, cameras, and everything else. When we got home, they talked and talked about parties, and so I rifled through our stash of supplies to see what we could do. I found a box of candles that fit into our birthday ring, and a box of beeswax sheets. They happily shaped, molded and worked the beeswax onto the candles and decorated them.

A said that if we have candles, we have to light them and make wishes. SO, I carefully lit one candle at a time, and we each made a wish. Our first round was funny - A wished for a John Deer Combine Harvester Set with Thrasher. G shrieked Take-a-longs, going with the flow. I wished for happy and healthy boys. A wondered why I would waste a wish on that, when I could ask for a toy, or something more substantial.

And, of course, A asked "Do wishes come true?". Of course wishes when you blow out your candle are not magical and don't come true just because you wish them to, but we talked about the idea of wishes being a way to envision your goals or hopes, to focus positively on one idea, or to promise to yourself to put a concept or goal into motion that is important to you, that means something, that you want to dedicate yourself to. And perhaps by speaking of it to yourself and making a wish or promise, you make it more real in your mind, and maybe even help put it into action, and by focusing on a positive statement perhaps it will help you consciously contribute towards a good resolution.

A asked questions and talked about that with me, and had many of his own thought and ideas. After a few minutes, he said he wanted another round of wishes. I lit his candle, and he bent closer. After a deep breath, thoughtfully pausing, he said he wished that all creatures on the planet had a clean habitat and that no sea creatures would be endangered or become extinct. And he blew out his candle.