Wishes Do Come True
“Mama, look at me!”, Evan cried from the old-fashioned balcony pulpit at St. Mary’s Church in Brookline, MA. “How do you think I got up here?”
“Hmmm. let me think,” I pretended to be puzzled. “You climbed up on the pew and then jumped up to the bottom of the pulpit and swung yourself over the wooden railing”
“Nope, try again!”
“You climbed up the column like Spiderman!”
“Mama…” this one was too much even for him, my five-year old son.
“You wished it really hard and magically got in there,” I took my guess again
“No,” he giggled, “there are stairs right here in the back”
I got up the stairs and sat next to him explaining how when you sing or speak from this raised pulpit, your voice carries further– and before there were microphones, this was a clever way for your voice to be heard. Evan, who has lately been waiting for the first star in the sky to wish upon every night got quiet and asked, “Mama, do wishes really come true?”
“Of course they do, Evan,” I said, quickly adding, “except the ones that are greedy or mean”
“But do they ever come true right away? Like…’poof”?”
“No, I don’t think so. It usually takes some time. And usually the wishes that come true are those that you wish for with all of your heart. Then God, who knows your heart, hears it and helps you get the wish you wish for”. Then I told him how when I was five, I wished to someday go to America. I tried to explain the best I could, how impossible that wish seemed from a world so far away and so different from this country.
“Your wish came true, Mama,” he said with a smile on his face.
An hour later, the concert began. As Denny and Melanie played the instrumental intro to the program, I stood in the darkness, with only backlights illuminating the first few pews of the georgeous church. Small crowd, I thought and felt a bit disappointed. But then I saw a woman wearing the “I do believe” t-shirt. She was sitting in her wheelchair in front of the first row of the pews, with a blanket over her lap. If I was discouraged for a moment, the sight of her was like a bright sign popping out of darkness: sing for her. It took a big effort on her part to be here tonight. You need to deliver the music as if you were performing for thousands. One person. One soul. That’s all that matters. That one person.
I gave my all. 100%. No holding back. Towards the end of the concert, I decided to talk about Evan’s wishing upon the star and how I told him about my own wish coming true. I sang “Over the Rainbow” remembering what it felt like to be that little girl and wish something against all odds. After the concert, I went to thank the woman in the “I do believe” shirt for coming. She pulled me close, “Tell Evan that wishes do come true. Two years ago I saw you at another concert in Boston and I have been wishing ever since that you would return to our area.” she said with a big, beaming smile on her face.
Speaking of wishes coming true, earlier this week I had to drop off my MacBook at an Apple store here in Boston area. The store was located in a very, very upscale mall. I took Blais with me to have some one-on-one time: I planned on taking him out for lunch. After we had dropped off my computer (and Apple Stores have the best customer service in the world– everyone is super nice, knowledgeable and their “genius bar” service is enough of a reason to become a Mac user}, Blais decided he wanted to ride the escalators. So we went upstairs where we landed in front of a really nice Ellen Fisher boutique. I thought of going in and checking out their end-of-season sweaters’ sale. (I like Ellen Fisher’s sweaters because their wool is light and Italian and hand-washable.) Still feeling a bit shy after my last week’s experience (see “Child Friendly” entry), although I did receive a nice response from their manager supervisor apologizing for the treatment I had received, I took Blais by the hand and slowly walked in. Immediately a georgeous looking woman in her 40s came up to us and said “Hi!” to Blais. Within minutes the two of them were sitting on a ledge of a platform in the shop’s window, talking and playing with decorative stones, while I browsed through the racks of clothes. She allowed herself to stop what she was doing and enjoy this little person who wandered into her store. She noticed his manners, his sweetness, his two-and-a-half-years-old personality, smiling at the way he talked to her, and then completely melted when Blais, encouraged to take one stone to the cashier lady who would write his name on it, took three and said to her: “Evan and Dante too! Ple-ee-ase”
Now, I wonder: does this little, insignificant, but definitely precious life’s episode qualify as “wishes do come true?”
