Wishes, Hopes and Dreams, Oh My
Most of us have them, some of us constantly. Even those who are satisfied with their lives and content with their day-to-day will talk about better or different possibilities for themselves. I think it means you are optimistic about the future. If people are on a personal trajectory, and not stuck for some reason, they have hopes, wishes or dreams about where it’s taking them.
These are three different versions of the same thing, and the differences are important. I believe it’s in the amount of participation you have to exert in order to make them come true.
To me, a hope is something you throw out there. I hope it doesn’t rain during my half marathon. I hope the traffic isn’t bad for my drive down to the city. I hope all the good tickets to the Moulin Rouge show with Boy George aren’t sold out before I can order mine. You get it. I have little to no control over my hopes, so I put them out into the world and hope (pun intended) some guardian angel or puff of wind blows them into being. I might feel disappointed if my hope doesn’t come to fruition, but not in myself. That’s an important point.
Wishes have just the tiniest bit more control or at least are based on something you have to do to try to make them happen. Do you wish to win the lottery? You have to buy a ticket. Then you can hope it’s the big one. Do you wish you could find a better job? There’s an app for that. You can wish for world peace or an end to world hunger, but even those lofty ideals aren’t going to happen if you and many others don’t take your tiny contributions and add them to the big pot. If wishes don’t come true even though you did your part, then the disappointment, again, is not in yourself.
Dreams, now, that’s a different animal. If you have a dream, the only way it’s going to come true is through great effort, drive and stick-to-itiveness. You can’t give up on a dream or it dies, and we all know how Langston Hughes feels about that. Dreams are, effectively, a goal you set for yourself. Some of the dreams I’ve had to work hard for include becoming a teacher, a foster parent, a mother, a full-time writer, a half-marathoner. None of that would have happened if I’d sat around and just thought I wish I could run a 13.1 mile race or I hope one day I publish a novel. Dreams don’t work that way. Just ask some elderly people who will tell you about their regrets in life.
This Post was Inspired by a Hope
A recent incident got me thinking about hope, which led to me pondering a mindset activity I used to do with my students where they had to write a wish, a hope and a dream. I loved the self-expressions, self-discovery, explorations and wonderings of these young ones when they shared with the group. And then I followed the Maureen Breadcrumbs, as I always do; and that led to this article.
This particular hope happened just last week. I was with friends having dinner outside the city of New Paltz on a bitter winter night. As we drove down the deserted street towards town afterwards, we came to a bike-walk path with a stop sign. Standing a few yards up the path was a dog. A tiny dog. A tiny brown poodle mix dog. And it was looking at our cars as we came to a stop. I jumped out of my car so fast I left the door standing open. I walked towards the little fella hoping to get him in my car to warm him up and take him to the police station so they could find his owner. I’ve done this more times than I care to count, and I was hoping this one would go the same way. It wasn’t to be. A friend from the other car joined me as the Little darted off into the woods. We called to him and walked the path, but he was too frightened to come out and be rescued.
My heart sank as we got back into our cars. It was so cold out and there were lots of predators living in this part of New York. She called the local police department to send someone out to look for him and I posted it all over the internet. I do not know what happened, probably never will, but I hope all ends well for the pup.
That’s what I mean. A hope is like a prayer you send up because it’s out of your control. This one was closely followed with I wish people took better care of their pets. Of course, there is the possibility this little pup had escaped through no fault of the owner but as I said, I’ve rescued quite a few roaming dogs including a pack of three that had left their yard and were just taking themselves for a walk down the road by my house. And this hope and wish are related to my late-life dream of adopting elderly dogs whose owners had to surrender them, so I can give them a lovely, caring, warm place to spend their last days.
Wishes, hopes and dreams give life its color and make it interesting. Some are desperate and a matter of survival, others are just plain fun. I think having them means you are green and growing, as opposed to ripe and rotting as you age. I think not having them could lead to a look back full of regrets when it’s just too late, and I’m not a fan of regret. So, dream on and send those hopes up to whoever or whatever is in charge of such things. I wish you all the best!
See what I did there?