Wish upon a Star

i go out to watch the sky

each night

staring for a while

but not too long

some nights i get my wish

a streak of light across the night

so brief

silent

and gone

my wish is faster

and burns more bright

and every shooting star i catch

and hold with my words

brings you closer

closer

*

An old man once explained to me what "wishing on a star" actually meant. After years of watching various people become successful I've come to accept that what he told me was totally insightful.

A shooting star (that which we wish upon) appears for ever so brief a moment and it does so totally unexpectedly. You have maybe 1 second before it disappears from view again.

For your wish to come true you have to make it before the shooting star disappears.

Now i know that that will come as a surprise to most readers - that your wish only comes true if you make it before the star disappears - but if you think about it it makes a lot of sense.

Let's say that you are very focused on something you want to achieve - and that it fills much of your daily thoughts. You want to become a doctor say. You really want it. You do everything that you can to progress towards that goal. Reading medical material. Studying hard. Learning all you can that takes you where you want to go. You live and breath it.

Now, staring at the sky you see a shooting star - and instantly on your lips is the wish to become a doctor. It's totally automatic - there's no thinking about it or weighing this desire against that one. It's a crystalisation of all you are - a doctor.

How likely is it that your wish will come true?

Counter that with the WISHY-washy wish you might make if you can take as much time as you like to make the wish. Unless you have something that really drives you, defines you, you're likely to make any old sort of wish - like a new bicycle or to win the favour of someone or other. The wish will have no meaning and is likely to be forgotten soon after you made it -  your mind wondering off on some tangent triggered by any arbitrary stimulus.

Wishing on a star works - if you are worthy of the wish.

pop

ps - this post was originally a comment posted to The Archdruid Report