The Matchmaking Tree
Many years ago, I wrote about the Wishing Tree at my camp, and how I used my wish (at 8 years old) to make what my friends all said was a terrible wish (it was for a 12-year-old boy at the camp, who didn’t acknowledge my existence in any way, to kiss me) and how it came true years later.
I had to drive through his old neighbourhood last week when we got stuck in traffic coming home from camp. I didn’t think I’d remember how to go, but my hands turned the wheel at the correct times, and we ended up exactly where I wanted, bypassing the traffic. Driving through there made me wistful for my high-school-aged self, even though his parents moved away years ago, and the boy (who is still a peripheral friend) now lives on the west coast.
There is a tree in Germany with similar powers. You don’t run through the split trunk and kiss the air, but the tree has “magical matchmaking powers” and receives dozens of letters per day of people making wishes from afar. The Atlantic article is the best story — you really need to read the whole thing because it will make you cheer and cry and cheer and cry — and it made me think of my Wishing Tree.
The kids asked me if I had any regrets about using up my wish on that kiss. Zero regrets. It doesn’t matter that it didn’t work out and we only dated for a few months. We stayed friends for almost 30 years since that kiss, and beyond that, it just makes a great story.
Sometimes stories are worth just as much as wishes.
2 comments
I was literally thinking about exactly this on Sunday!!!!
I went for a long bike ride with some friends, and we ended up at the beach – the EXACT same beach I sat on in April 2006. in April 2006, about a week after my chemical pregnancy, I didn’t think I could go through any more pain to become a parent (but had no idea it would take longer and be harder than we ever thought it would be). And I sat on the beach and threw a wish into the ocean.
If I couldn’t have a baby, I wanted a bike so I could ride to the beach.
But then, I went home, and it struck me how silly my wish was. It would be stupid to spend money that we could use on treatments to get a bike, when I would probably never use it anyway.
So over the years, I kind of just forgot about my wish. And more than a decade passed, and I DID become a mom, and I found running, and then got injured and found swimming. And so, for completely different reasons, I bought a bike – I decided to try and do a triathlon.
So, this Sunday, thirteen years later, I ended up at that same beach. On a bike.
I don’t think we use up wishes; the universe is vast enough that, given enough time, tall wishes come back to you, one way or another. I think the issue is that we just don’t live long enough to see *all* of our wishes come true.
Oh, yes. A good story is gold.
The Giving Tree and your Wishing Tree make me think about another of your trees. Wasn’t there a lollipop tree?