What You Wish For

Be careful what you wish for!

The interviewee laughed as they flippantly relayed these words. I acknowledged the cautionary saying I, too, have heard many a time from family, friends, colleagues and strangers.

When believed,

these words make us wary of wishing,

we can be cautious to imagine new possibilities,

we are hesitant to dream of change.

In the book A Field Guide to Getting Lost, Rebecca Solnit wrote, “The things we want are transformative, and we don’t know or only think we know what is on the other side of that transformation.”

It is in the unknowns that our own - and others’ - fears lie. It is in the gap between the expectations and reality that can drive us to later lament the lack of caution in our wishing.

It takes courage to maintain our belief in the human reality of wishing, dreaming, and imagining. It takes conviction to move toward the change we seek.

It makes me curious,

what if we were to acknowledge the caution … and do it anyway?

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