Birthday Wishes

People often cheer "make a wish" before someone blows out the candle on her birthday cake. They don't exactly say "make many wishes", "make some wishes", or even just "make a few wishes".

Now I wonder how many wishes I am really allowed to make at one birthday for the wishing magic to be effective. If I may make more than one, do I have to prioritize clearly? Also, to what extent a wish could sound unrealistic for it to be entertained?

For a wish to qualify as a wish, of course there must be certain challenges for it to be readily fulfilled. But if the intensity of challenge is such that clearing the roadblock is like moving mountain, should one continue to keep it as a wish and let it remain as such - ie, not much one can really do about it except to keep wishing - until a miracle manifests itself to make it come true?

I don't always have the wisdom to distinguish between what I can change and what I simply have to accept. I believe no one has. For those wishes which seemingly will always remain as such, therefore, I choose to keep my faith - I don't want to accept anything as truth until I see it as an immutable fact. And when I blow my candles (nominally) tonight, I shall make more than one wish. I don't care if it is greedy. I only get one birthday each year and believe sincerity in the wishes is what counts after all.

Anyway, it is heartening to receive all well wishes from friends and colleagues, and my family of course - in both physical and electronic means.