Wishing will make it so -- but not exactly

“I prayed to God and I prayed to God, but none of my prayers were being answered,” said an acquaintance one day. “I went to my pastor and consulted with him about my concerns. He said, I think your prayers were being answered, but God was just saying No!”

In other words, things don’t always turn out either the way we want them to, or the way we envision them turning out.

“Don’t wish too hard for something,” my grandmother once said (my grandmother said everything anyone needs to know. Certain aphorisms have been attributed to the Bible, or Shakespeare, or Shaw, but I think Granny said them first), “because your wish might come true.”

That made no sense whatsoever when I was a little kid because I wasn’t much up on philosophical metaphysics.

Anyway, the other day I had a long-long-long held wish come true. In this I’ll be cryptic and won’t mention any details because they are irrelevant here, and the tale is a rather personal one. But, what I wanted to consider is how our wishes (prayers, if you prefer) sometimes manifest themselves.

When we dream of having something we long for coming to pass, we look on the bright side first. You know, wouldn’t it be wonderful if … and then we envision the universe opening up and because the dream has manifested we are finally at peace with the world.

Of course, if we are in a negative mood, then we revert to ‘worst-possible-scenario’ as in, if it came true, it might look like this … and the way it looks is ugly, frightening and/or heartbreaking. Worst possible scenarios often manifest before a (long-anticipated) road-trip or airline flight and generally include a lot of maimed bodies alongside a freeway or in a farmer’s field in Iowa.

But, mostly our dreams involve positive results. And that is where Granny’s caveat comes into play, and also gives me leave to create an aphorism of my own. Mine is simply this:

Your dreams will come true but they will not look at all like you imagined them!

That’s what happened with mine. My years’ old dream manifested – but it manifested differently from my wildest imaginings. Not especially negatively, not especially positively, just ‘differently.’

But, in retrospect, the way it manifested was exactly the way it should have. It indicated there is both order and reality in the universe. And for that I am immensely grateful.

More important to me, it manifested ‘thoughtfully’ in that it left me room for a lot of introspection about the situation. Reality didn't 'bite' but merely nipped, and it was a good nip. And that introspection gives me a certain guiding force.

You have to like that. And for that I am grateful.