I've had many good things happen in my life including wishes and dreams coming true.
Recently, a fellow blogger wrote an insightful, moving, humourous, and thought-provoking blog post about wishes.
I tend mostly to cut straight to the chase of a topic but Brett never seems in a hurry to get his thoughts down in print and his Grant a Wish post was no different.
Brett thoroughly explored what a wish means to him by breaking it down into components and linking important members of his biological family to the attributes.
He began with his grandfather, who he described as "a self-made man who granted wishes his entire life."
Brett recalled his memories of his grandfather and in doing so reminded me of my own grandfather, known as "Frank," who was also very much a self-man man. He was a man who in his 101-year life went from a 14-year-old cook out in the wild west of British Columbia to a Sargent with the Toronto police department. Of course there were many, many places in-between. Also like Brett's granddad, Frank built many things with his hands and would have appreciated the quality of Craftsman tools. Some of his creations include the cottages at Maple Lake and many of the original furniture pieces in them or that were in them.
Brett wrote too of his grandmother who he credited with bestowing empathic abilities--a truly golden gift in my opinion, as I was given it as well. He went on to credit his mum with instilling a love of reading which in turn garnered him a wide life perspective as well as spoke of his dad encouraging Brett's freedom to chose what he wanted to do in life. Besides empathy, he credited his grandmother with an understanding of potential in others and in his grandfather’s drive to help people, an example of and a desire for improving the world around them.
And just as if he had a large, lovely ribbon Brett tied together the things that his loved ones had given him.
He spoke of his grandfather at the tender age of 16 building a working motorcycle from scratch so he'd be able to get to town and find better work. He shared that his grandfather's interest in finding a better way to accomplish things never waned. Brett said that if his grandfather found a more efficient or effective way of doing things he adopted them and integrated them into his own repertoire.
The theme of continuing improvement to realize a dream tied together much of what Brett said about his family and he shared that he believes it "important in life to try and improve upon those talents and gifts that we receive from our parents and grandparents."
With this in mind, Brett approached Sears, saying that as he shops for the important people in his life this holiday season, he planned on focusing on "finding those things that will help them realize their potential, realize how to master their own situations in life, and realize their own dreams and wishes."
Brett summarized his essay (it was so much more than just a blog post) with looking beyond his immediate family to the world of blogging and what he calls his "extended blogging family" with this: "I see in Sears and in the Grant a Wish program the opportunity for people looking to explore their creative side and work in blogging or podcasting or even learning how to do video, I see an opportunity." Brett advised people that were scouring the store shelves in search of the perfect gift for that special someone to "look at the products on the shelf, and think how those products might be used by the people that receive them to un-tap their potential. If you can do that, if you can even get a little close, you will probably Grant a Wish to the person you love and I believe that the gift that they receive will not go to waste."
Brett summed up his post with these thoughts: "Maybe you can provide some inspiration to someone that might just change the world, and if that’s true, then you will have changed the world a little bit for the better yourself!"
Honestly, I couldn't have said it better myself.
Comments