A Christmas Wish!

If you had the chance to wish for anything what would you wish for? It’s something we have all thought about. Perhaps the story of the Genie in the Lamp or Aladdin and the Magic Lamp comes to mind because the story recreated by Disney Studios has dated back almost 3,000 years. But we get only one wish in this case and you can’t wish for more wishes.

​The story of the Genie in the lamp has many spins and greedy wishes normally lead to disaster and unexpected peril. Or we can think about the funny TV series I dream of Jeannie, that aired from 1965-1970, staring Larry Hagman, Barbara Eden, Bill Daily and Hayden Rorke. Mostly a show watched by the baby boomers it featured the hilarious adventures of Jeanie (Barbara Eden) and her master Tony Nelson (Larry Hagman) in a modern-day scenario. All of that aside most of us would probably use the wish for fame, riches, or immortality, just saying.  

In my first year at the University of Massachusetts, Business 101 instructor, George Odiorne, (1976) posed a question like the above to his hall of 350 students. I believe it was, if you could have anything what would it be. Then he listed wealth, fame, incredible intelligence, great health, immortality etc. This is my first recollection of the concept health and its overall importance to us. The point being why be wealthy, famous, or immortal if you don’t have your health to support it.

Health is important to me and it should be to you. Health and overall wellness are what I am blogging about, but not what I am wishing for in this piece. What about in the grander scheme of things? As members of humanity and the animal and plant kingdom, I believe that we all want to live in peace, be able to enjoy the beautiful planet we live on, be part of family and community, have no wants or fears, have a connection or transcendence with the universe, all that kind of stuff. That’s straight forward. I started thinking about wishes in church and prayer came to mind, go figure. Was that divine intervention? My thoughts focused on prayer, what’s the difference? I probably chose the wrong title for this piece and should have called it a Christmas prayer. Praying is hard, and I know I don’t do it enough. Wishes are easy, I want to win the lottery. Fair enough let’s go with this then.

My First Christmas Wish

I wish that we become more prayerful human beings. I know that I need help in that category maybe you do too. Perhaps that’s like asking for more wishes. You can pray as often as you want, walking, standing, kneeling in your car in your home, but best alone in a quiet space. 

The Second Christmas Wish

My second Christmas prayer is for world peace and for mankind to unite to make our world a better, more sustainable place for ourselves, our families, and our children and their children and so on down the line. (Lord why are we such a violent people?) There are a lot of things that can change for the better if we pray hard about it. I am going to continue to pray for lots of things this season and beyond and that’s better than any wish. Peace to all.