A Living Wish

They lay silent within our lips while enveloping our heart and mind in a deafening current of wonder. They give life to every breath and breath to every moment of our life. They fill our souls with a hopeful hunger and give inspiration to our life’s journey. They’re the wishes we silently set our future upon.

 

As a child we’d stare excitedly into the flames flickering atop the cake in front of us, and wait in anticipation to free the wishful echoes of our heart - setting them courageously upon our breath to extinguish the celebratory blaze. We send each hope-filled wish silently into the world hoping that one day it may reverberate back to our being in the form of a truth. Whether we are five or one-hundred and five, it still is the same. Little do we realize that every day we wake, that wish along with so many others, set themselves upon the curious wonder that makes up our lives and inspires our journey. The most beautiful thing in life is when that very wish lives upon our heart, and we see it reflected not in the material world around us but within the depth of love and gratitude that lives within who we are. It is a living wish within ourselves that has the power to shape how we choose to live and see our own lives.

A Birthday Wish

It seems to happen without fail with each passing year. I awake on my birthday to find my heart a bit heavier than when I slipped into sleep the night before. Each breath weighted with the significant realities of what another birthday truly means. I lie there a bit longer than usual - feeling the magnificence of the simplest thing and how it influences my life. I can feel the heaviness on my heart grow. Not from sadness but from an unparalleled humbled gratitude for being given another birthday. A birthday that thirty-one years ago would have been believed to be impossible. A birthday I know for which so many have wished. A birthday for which I have wished. As I lie awake greeting this new morning, feeling each breath enliven my body, I see last year’s wish not only before me, but feel it alive within me. Another beautiful year that was never guaranteed. Another year that was only possible because of the love, dedication, and tenacity of so many people - to them, I and so many owe every breath. With every year I’m given to look back upon, I realize even more just how priceless this beautiful life truly is and the people and memories that make up every moment.

One More

Just by happenstance, my regularly scheduled appointment with my CF care team happened to be on my birthday this week. Strangely, it seemed only fitting that I spend my thirty-first birthday with them - a day in which years ago seemed unreachable. A day in which when I was born was merely a distant and seemingly impossible wish like so many others born with cystic fibrosis. But, that’s the beauty of wishes. It’s because of the power that lies within a single wish we can celebrate another birthday. A day we’d celebrate not just as my birthday but our birthday. We are living proof that a simple wish can be born of impossible circumstance and their truth can flourish within the perseverance, passion, and heart of those who share the very same wish.

As I sat there in the familiar exam room, I couldn’t help but be humbled by the significance of where I was and the people that surrounded me. For I knew every breath I took was because of each of them and these thirty-one years they’ve fought to make that single wish a reality. A wish for just one more.

One more birthday.

One more meaningful memory.

One more beautiful breath.

I am more grateful than I will ever find the words to express for each of you and to celebrate this beautiful birthday. What did I wish for this year on my birthday? The single thing I always wish for - just one more. Love to you all.

Don’t just make a wish. Live your wish.