Beyond the genie

Dreams and wishes and hopes!  Oh my!

So many stories written about them.  In theory they are paths to happiness, but are they really?

Beyond all the stories of genies tricking people into wasting wishes, is the discontent of wanting something I can't have, or that isn't here, or that may never occur.

I heard that Lincoln told a little girl, whose father was killed in the Civil War, to imagine herself happy at some point in the future and she would eventually get there.  When dreams, wishes, hopes, are a rope to keep us alive, I understand their value.

They are more likely to be visions of something I think will make me happy when happiness lies in the moment.

In this moment, this one teeny tiny moment, I can find peace, if not happiness, in simply breathing in and breathing out.  Realizing this and living in this small place can be the path to true happiness.

No matter what I think I know, the next moment is really the unknown.  It may be awful, or wonderful.  It may just be a jog in the road to something bigger and better.  It may actually be the end.

So my wish is:  let me live in this moment fully.