Monday, June 20, 2011

The promise of a wish...

The other day my daughter had an eyelash on her cheek. She promptly placed it gently on her fingertip, closed her eyes, mumbled softly and blew it away into the wind. The promise of a wish.
"I can't tell you what I wished, Mommy, cuz then it won't come true."

For some reason that, to me, was so sad. The promise of a wish.

As an adult now, I can tell you that many of my birthday wishes, my bedtime pleas, my fallen eyelash wishes have not come true.  I've never been to Disney World, Scotland, or Australia. I still didn't get to date that one guy. I haven't won a million dollars. But when I made those wishes, the promise that each held was of the utmost importance at the time.

They didn't come true.

I felt myself suddenly so sad for my dear daughter holding so fast to whatever promise she just had in that eyelash wish. Would that wish ever come true? How would I know? What would she be wishing for in the future?

So, I asked her. "What was your wish, honey?!"
"I can't tell you; it won't come true."
"Well, what's something you've wished for before? Not this time, but other times?"
"Well, honestly, mommy, I wish a lot to someday meet the real Hannah Montana!"

And with this simple admission, I knew I could make a difference in her empty promised wishes.

"Well, you know what? Sometimes wishes have a funny way of coming true."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, maybe God knew somehow that you'd probably never get to meet the real Hannah Montana, right?! But who did we go to see last year?!"
"Emily Osment"
"And who is she?!"
"Lily, Hannah Montana's best friend!"
"Exactly! And so God knew that if you'd never get to see Hannah Montana, at least you'd be able to say someday that you met her best friend! It was like your wish came true in a different way! Isn't that cool?"
"Now that I think of it, Mommy, I think that Emily Osment knew how special it was for me to be there! Remember how she waved right to me & gave me that piece of paper (set list)?! Wow. It was like my wish coming true in a different way!"

And with that I felt relieved. I felt as though she wouldn't have to live in the shadow of empty wishes. At least she had some hope... Some reason to keep on wishing because her wishes could be answered in another form. Happy sigh. Smile.


And someday when she's older, I'll tell her how for so many years, she was my fallen eyelash, my birthday candle wish, my tears softly falling at night. She is my wish come true.