Our Wishes For You

As the year comes to an end, many people celebrate various holidays and traditions with friends and family.  It is often a time of reflection and a time to look forward to what the new year will bring. 

There are lots of phrases that come to mind when I think about wishes, such as:

• “Your wish is my command.”
• “Be careful what you wish for! You might just get it!”
• “A goal without a plan is just a wish.”
•  “I wish you were here!”
• “I wish you luck!”
• “Best wishes!”

Having lived in Nashville for 17 years, a.k.a. Music City, I have to share a few melodies that come to mind about wishes.

• Rascal Flatts ~ “My wish, for you, is that this life becomes all that you want it to; Your dreams stay big, your worries stay small….”
• Lee Ann Womack ~ “I hope you never lose your sense of wonder…never take one single breath for granted…I hope you still feel small when you stand beside the ocean; When one door closes I hope one more opens….and when you get the choice to sit it out or dance….I hope you dance…”
• Barbie ~ …I will keep doing all I can do; I will keep wishing because wishes come true; I’m dreaming our Christmas will turn out right; That’s the wish I wish; Tonight….”

Then, there are things we do in hopes of good things like throwing a coin in a wishing well, blowing out candles on our birthday cake, padlock on the bridges overlooking the Seine, or embedding a few pence into a tree off the far beaten path.

 

We have a tradition in our home that when friends and family visit, we ask them to place a wish in our wishing jar. I love doing this because it often makes us think about our good fortunes, health, friendship, and so many positive things. It also gets us to look toward the future and envision good things to come.  Hope and positive thinking are very powerful. 

Numerous studies have revealed that those with hope experience higher success levels and meeting goals, higher socioeconomic status (Nelissen, 2017; Dante et al., 2018).  Hopefulness and positivity are not new concepts being researched. 

Almost 20 years ago, Schneider (2001) published that resilience and hope correlate strongly with better health and longevity, success, and happiness. In another paper published by the Medical Sciences and Hospital Administration in 1909, the author shared the following,

“He [the doctor] strides, beaming, into the sick-room, and, if it is physically possible, slaps the patient on the back.  If the back is pre-occupied by pillows or a mattress, he proceeds verbally in the same direction, endeavoring by a gust of jovial talk and banter to dissipate the greyness of atmosphere which so readily envelopes a sick-room.  Often enough, his robust cheeriness proves infections, and leave the patient with a sense of well-being which the cleverest combination of drugs is powerless to impact (p. 145).”

 

As we come upon the end of 2020 and in the midst of COVID-19, our wish for you is to be surrounded by “jovial talk and banter to dissipate the greyness of atmosphere,” “robust cheeriness,” and to have high levels of resilience and hopefulness.

 

Connect, Communicate, and Collaborate. That IS the 3C way. Happy Holidays!

~Tami Bradham

 

References:

• Dixson, DD, Keltner, D, Worrell, FC, Mello, Z. (2018). The magic of hope: Hope mediates the relationship between socioeconomic status and academic achievement, The Journal of Educational Research, 111(4), 507-515. DOI: 10.1080/00220671.2017.1302915

• Nelissen, RM. (2017). The motivational properties of hope in goal striving. Cognition and Emotion, 31(2), 225-237. DOI: 10.1080/02699931.2015.1095165

• Schneider, SL. (2001). In search of realistic optimism. Meaning, knowledge, and warm fuzziness. American Psychologist, 56(3), 250–263. DOI: 10.1037/0003-066X.56.3.250

• The Therapeutic Value of Hope. (1909). The Hospital, 46(1186), 145–146.
  
  ©Photo by Tamala Bradham via Canva.com