By Noreen Byrne

Now you make a wish. You wish that you could really be like this, feel like this forever. By constantly imagining, visualizing, making a vivid picture in your mind, you will cause nature to grant you your wishes. You will find yourself working towards the very goals that you have set. You simply need to think positively and constantly. Happy wishes, as my grand-mother used to say, always come true because you levitate towards making them come true.

Suppose we actually got the things we wished for, things like a wonderful partner, executive job, super car, latest devices for the home.

We could not be sure how long they would last. We could not be sure that they would pass away as quickly as they had come.

But if we obtained what we wished for by trying hard to make our wish come true wouldn´t all the good things last longer? Wouldn´t that wonderful partner stay with us longer because we make them feel good when they are with us?  If we made the people in at work feel happy or wanted for even a few minutes when we are in their company,  a well-meant compliment, an offer of help, a cup of coffee or simply just to give them a kind smile. Their response will make your dream come true. By being loving and thoughtful towards others we are starting a chain reaction. What goes around comes back around again and again.

Wishes are hard work. We have to continue to be kind, to be patient with people and to be of help to them.

By trying to make our wishes come true we are also making other people´s wishes come true.

Everybody can make wishes. Whether you are rich or poor, educated or ignorant, ill or in good health, young or old.

 Do you think animals wish for things too?  I wish I knew

Usually your family, friends, and teachers try their best to make your life better.

I wish all my students pass their exams and obtain well paid jobs that they will enjoy doing for a very long time.

By Noreen Byrne

Three of these wishes are not so selfish.

Carmen works long hours doing a difficult job. Her wish is only that she could have more time for herself. Perhaps she wants to spend that time unselfishly rearing her children, helping her parents or cleaning her home.

The parrot spends all its life in captivity. It should be flying free enjoying life, perhaps with other birds, having its own family.

Perhaps it´s owners are the selfish ones as they want the bird to keep them company, have something unusual in their home. Maybe the bird gives them a reason to feel good about themselves because they can talk to it, give it food and water.

The dog wishes it had a big juicy bone. Perhaps it is hungry, starving, or bored. If it had a juicy bone it would not feel the need to bark so much. If it had a bone it could bury it somewhere in the house or garden and then it would feel a great desire to protect it and the house from intruders. Then when it got its wish the dog would become a much better dog and a happier one.

My mother always said that we should be careful what we wish for because most of the time our wishes come true.

Like the little girl who hated school and always wished that her parents believed her when she told them that she got terrible headaches when she tried to read or write. Day after day she would cry that her head ached dreadfully. Her parents became so worried that they wrote numerous letters asking the teacher to excuse their daughter from attending school due to her ill health. They sent her to doctors and specialists. As this cost such a lot of money their live-style changed. They had less money to spend on their daughter. The doctors and specialists couldn´t find anything wrong with the little girl but the worried parents developed severe headaches from stress. They began shouting at their daughter. The children who had previously been the little girls friend called her names like, stupid, brainless, daffy, useless nitwit and many other names that all meant the same thing: Uneducated and ignorant.

Eventually of course, the child really did begin to get headaches.

So wish practically, positively, and unselfishly.