Wishing and Hoping and Dreaming
The word is wish and the challenge, at Jillsy Girl’s blog, was to interpret the word in a blog post. I chose to do a quick post on the Disney song, When You Wish Upon a Star and much conversation ensued.
And, I’ve been thinking about wishing ever since. I’ve wished for things in my life; every now and then I play the lottery-that’s a wish and a hope and a dream-right up until the moment I don’t win. Everyone has hopes and dreams and wishes, we also have plans and lists and goals. To wish is something remote and dreamy-it’s vague and not always in the realm of possibility. Any mother who’s said to a teenage child, ” I wish you’d stop dropping your dirty clothes on the bathroom floor”, knows that it’s not a very likely thing.
Wish is not an action word, it’s passive. I wish I had more clients, I wish my house was cleaner, I wish I had more hours in the day to write. None of these, alone, will bring about the change indicated in the wish. The sentence could be changed to “I wish I had more clients and tomorrow I plan to contact….”And, there the wish gives way to a plan- an action.
We can wish for others, because in that case there is no direct action to be taken on our part. The ‘doing’ is up to the individual. I can easily talk about the wishes I have for my children’s well being. And, you’ll here people saying “I wish I had….” with an emphasis on the past as if by wishing, in retrospect, we could change something that’s already happened.
My wish of the moment would be for time to sit in silence and do some reflecting and planning. The moment is there, all I have to do is make it happen!
What’s your take on wishing?
I love how you dissected the meaning of the word from different angles. Very interesting. You obviously gave the word a lot of thought. BTW, your link goes back to my blog for some reason. You should probably go and add a new one. I found this post through your Delicacies post.
I did.. the word just hung there and after people started commenting I could see the possibilities. I love playing with one word and the various meanings and interpretations!
I’ve redone the link, thanks for letting me know. You can delete #6, as 7 is the correct working one.
Unfortunately, I can’t find a way to delete an entry!
I love this! One of my favorite metaphysical writers is Florence Scovell Shinn, author of “Your Word is Your Wand”. She suggests you “program” yourself according to the words you choose. To “wish”, as you say, is passive and implies you do not have direct control over the situation. Action words like “I plan/choose/will/will not” stick in your mind as “sure things” which do not depend on the actions of others.
So, I will lose 30 pounds (one day), I will (never) accept my gray hair, and I plan on being a fabulously successful writer. There..my work here is done.
Done, huh? Nice. I like her idea of choosing ‘action’ words. Will check her out.
I think you make such a great point about the word – it can be passive and vague, but it can also be a point of take-off for action, even if you’re referring to things in the past (as in, I wish I hadn’t dropped out of college, so tomorrow I’m registering for a class and I’ll remind my kids to stay in so they don’t have to regret it later!) It’s the first step in a vision, perhaps? A wish becomes a vision or goal which leads to a concrete plan?
We posted the same song! Great minds think alike!
Yes, we do!!!