The wishing tree

Yes. We now have one of those. Right in front of our house. And you can stop by and put your wish on this wishing tree. No guarantees that they will come true. But how lovely to just put our wishes out there – leave them to bask in the summer sun, to flutter in the warm breeze. The wishes look so happy – they really seem like they will come true!

Yes. Summer’s here! The rain’s gone (we think – it is the Northwest after all). And we decided it would be the perfect time for a silly project!

My daughter returned from a summer camp with wishes written in Japanese calligraphy on strips of paper. “I need to hang them on Bamboo plants,” she announced. “We don’t have bamboo, but we could tie them to the tree outside,” I suggested. As we tied the wishes (I bet one of them said something about a dog, sigh…), I thought of a wishing tree. 

This idea is not original. Wish I could remember where I saw it to give proper credit, but I’ve been rather fuzzy-brained (for the past year or so now). Oh well… but the idea did stick with me.

The idea is simple. As we grow older, we stop dreaming. We sweep those dreams away - under the rug, into some dark crevices of memory, they die slowly – after living an unsung, unknown life. Okay, okay, tad dramatic I agree. But slowly we teach our kids to do that too, or perhaps they learn from us, from life’s experience.

So what better time than summer to do the opposite of that. So here’s our silly little scheme. We have paper with pieces of yarn attached and pencils – on a tree in front of our house. And you can stop by and put your wish out there.

And we are the lucky ones who get to peek outside and watch kids (and adults) daring to dream and putting their wishes out there – boldly, bravely, for the world to see, for the Universe to take in.

Yes. The idea is simple. And this is what I posted on our wishing tree.

 

 

This is a wishing tree

It may or may not make your dreams come true

But its branches will strongly hold all your wishes

And allow them to bask in the summer sun and flutter in the breeze

As we grow older, we forget our dreams or sweep our wishes under the rug

We don’t believe they will come true and stop wishing even

And that is a sad fact

This tree is the opposite of that

So go ahead and write your wish and tie it to the branches

And watch your wish become part of the Universe

 

p.s. My daughter didn't like the first draft and said the language was too "grown up" with bits about daring to dream and putting it out there - so here is the new kid-friendly version :)