Why the Kung Fu Master Needs a New Friend
June 9, 2008 | How to Change Your Life, Exercises and Experiments
(If you are wondering what the heck the whole wishing thing is about, or would just like to get the instructions from the beginning just visit If Wishes Were Horses - An Assignment to get all the details!)
You see, I set out with the best of intentions to post my wishes each day and then life comes along and happens and now you had to wait a whole day (again) just to see the next list of wishes. I’m sure you forgive me though.
I thought maybe today I’d tell you why I’ve been wishing for the little Master to have a new friend.
You see, ever since we moved here a year ago the Kung Fu Master has been lacking in the friend department. Moving here meant leaving his neighborhood friends behind in a small village outside of town. The plan (I suppose - not that we thought it out) is that he’d make new neighborhood friends here. Well, that hasn’t happened.
The boys in our immediate neighborhood are more the “stand around looking cool while swearing and smoking” class of boy rather than the “go for a hike, climb a tree and ride our bikes” kind of boys that the Master is used to spending time with. It only took him three or four days to decide he didn’t want to be friends with the boys he was seeing hanging around our neighborhood. And without a major catalyst to force him on to broader territory to meet new people he settled for what he had. Boys at kung fu, occasional visits with the old pals, and himself the rest of the time.
This plan worked until kung fu was suspended (lack of space for lessons) in January. Two days after I started making the Wish List (on Day Three) the Kung Fu Master got into trouble. Seems he was lonely and bored (having me gone all the time was a bit of a shock to his system I think), and instead of telling someone he was lonely and bored he started getting himself into trouble.
We, of course, punished him, but then we asked why he’d done it in the first place. I had been wanting him to make a new friend, but I hadn’t realized how much he really needed said new friend - I also hadn’t realized how hard he found it to take the first steps alone. So, feeling something had to be done to provide him with new opportunities I took action. I signed him up for the YMCA and took him to an event that very night.
When he came back from his Youth Fit program he was practically bouncing he was so happy (in fact, I think he may have been literally bouncing, come to think of it). He’d had a good time; he felt energized; he got to try something new and, oh yeah, he met a “dude”. So now, the Master goes to the occasional event and he’s making friends with this other new and teenage thing called a “dude” - which is good.
Now the “I wish the Kung Fu Master had a new friend” wish can be crossed off the list. It’s already done.
Shortening the list doesn’t necessarily mean that you are removing a dream, hope, or desire. We aren’t trying to eliminate their possibility. No! In fact, even though the Kung Fu Master’s friend was doomed to come off before I reached the final three God saw fit to fulfill it anyway. (This story is also a good lesson on how sometimes the crap has to hit the fan - i.e. KFM getting in big trouble - to make room for the good things to come in. It’s good to bear that in mind because I guarantee “things getting harder” is going to be an early result of working to change your life.)
Like I said, just writing the things on the page imbues them with a power and makes them more likely to happen. God won’t consider your decision to short list that item early on as an indication that you don’t really want it - and you shouldn’t either. The only purpose of shortening the list is to help you focus and really pinpoint those things that are most important to you right now. It’s more a “What to do First” technique rather than a “What do I Not Want?” thing.
Don’t consider the seventeen things that get left by the way side write offs; work on your top three and keep your eyes open for opportunities to grab a hold of the other seventten should they happen to come along. I think you’ll be surprised how many of your original twenty are crossed off over the next few weeks!
Five Wishes on Day Five
1. I wish I was regularly presented with opportunities to change women’s lives.
2. I wish I was taking a painting class.
3. I wish the store consistently made $2500 a week.
4. I wish my psychic gift was active and growing.
5. I wish my body was balanced, healthy, and whole.
Technically today is Day Six of the wish making assignment and as such the wishes should be reduced to four. But, wouldn’t you know, I can be inconsistent (despite best intentions) in all things, and not just with you. It turns out that Day Six was the one day I was so busy I couldn’t find the time to journal and therefore didn’t reduce my wishes down. (See, turns out that it’s ok I missed yesterday’s post - it all evens out in the end.)
You on the other hand, should in fact be writing out four wishes for today. Tomorrow’s the last day of our wish making assignment so be prepared to wrestle it down to the final, passion-filled three wishes!
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