Be careful what you wish for

A day just like any other, one that you wake and hope for the best. 

On this like any other day, the sand and wind called.

If you are unfamiliar with my beach it is, boldly cold, unapologetically dressed in drift wood and layered in brown sometimes pebbly sand that loves to get stuck in between your toes. 

It was on that day behind one large driftwood piece, half charred as someone tried to light a fire behind it and shelter from the cold and wind. I found it.. 

We have all heard the tales of magic genies and the old ornate bottles, well leave it to my beach to have a treasure the opposite. 

Nestled but not hidden there it was, an odd shaped twisted broken thingamajig. Thingamajig you ask.. yes so did I. 

What is the first thing you do when you find something like this.. well rub dirt off it of course. 

In a puff of what smelled like smokey bbq she appeared. 

Dressed unlike any tales of genies I have ever heard, layers. Layers of plaid, layers that represented the bold cold and unapologetic wind her broken odd thingamajig apparently let in through the cracks. 

Shivering yet beautiful as she did the thing.. she gave me 3 wishes. 

3 wishes, what would any of us do for 3 barely ruled wishes.. 

Of course there were the obvious ones, you can't raise the dead, rule the planets and nonsense like that. 

OHHH the power I felt coming up with 3 intentional true wishes.

1. Love 

2. Happiness 

3. Freedom 

With no questions or second guessing it was a quick ok, from my plaid odd genie. 

Then I woke up.. 

Did that happen, why is there sand on my feet and my hair felt misty wet. 

Life happened and I let go of my genie fantasy, for fairy tales are for dreamers and those that love to stand on the edge of mushy Walt Disney movies and believe. 

In my nearly 54 years on this plain this reality, I have found Love, Happiness and Freedom. 

Freedom in knowledge, freedom in being capable, freedom in letting go.. was there a price for Freedom, yes.

Happiness in my children, happiness in satisfaction, happiness in the smiles of others.. was there a price for Happiness, yes. 

Love in... 

well, this is where I'd wish my genie had been a little more talkative, ask questions or second guessed. 

Freedom and Happiness had their prices but LOVE had the highest of them all... for Love required more of my whole soul. Love meant sacrifice, loss, sadness, strength, forgiveness and most of all honesty.

One night in a dream years later the genie and I met on the beach, behind the charred log as she bellowed from her odd shaped thingamajig. 

Her message was quite simply this.. 

Wishes are just that, something we dream of, something we conjure and something as mystical as what it is we wished for. Because Freedom, Happiness and Love are not guaranteed. They are pursued, given and taken from you. Live in these knowing that you wished, that you pursued, that you gave and had it taken from you.