Three Wishes.
Ask them at bedtime what they'd wish for – and hear the strangest, sanest answer: nothing.
A bedtime question: if the genie came tonight, what would you wish for? Her husband thinks and answers: nothing. And Bella realizes: nothing either. Then she does what she does best – takes the answer apart honestly instead of leaving it sounding wise.
Every wish she considers raises questions: bind the future and you may be trapped by it; remove all hardship and you remove the lessons; rewrite the past and you lose the present you love. What's left is the sentence this site calls the working antidote to fear: no desired outcome. A Radical Thought walks the same ground – life carries more than our plans for it, and surrender is what lets it.
Two people wishing for nothing because it's already good – that's not resignation. That's arrival. Pass the lamp on.
🌸 Three wishes
As children we all dreamed of finding the magic lamp. Rub it – and a genie grants three wishes. We rewatched the fairy tales, made up what we'd ask for… and every time the wishes were new. They changed with age, with pain, with joy, with experience.
I confess – I fantasized often too. And recently, before sleep, I asked my husband:
– If you had three wishes right now – what would you ask for?
He thought and answered:
– Nothing. And you?
And I realized – nothing either.
Sounds silly? Maybe. But let me try to explain.
Imagine the butterfly effect. One wish can set off a chain of changes… and you're no longer you.
Wish to be with my husband all my life? What if at some point I fall out of love – but stay bound by that wish?
Immortality? I'm not sure I want to live forever.
Lots of money? What's the point of living when there's nothing left to reach for? Where's the growth, where's the way?
I started thinking of wishes that would do good: world peace, health, happiness for everyone… but what if, removing all the hardships, we remove the lessons too? Would the world really become better?
I thought about changing the past. But then I wouldn’t have ended up with what I have now. And now – is good. I love this moment. Myself. Us. My way.
Probably, if I did have three wishes – I'd give them away. To my child – with the request to walk their own way, with their own mistakes, but without the kind of pain that breaks you. To my family – to be honest with each other. To myself – simply to be.
But… we're already doing all of that.
So if a genie ever does come to me – I'll just smile. And pass the lamp on.
Thank you for reading.
If her words reached somewhere mine don't – good. That's what this blog is for. Take what fits and leave the rest.
– Jan