Wishing the days away

( excerpt from "Winters Ghost")

There was only work left to him, his wife and child dead and gone. Writing, getting by, day by day. I had been doing that for years now and I was sick of it. I was never going to move on. I was never going to get over it. There was no rainbow, there was no pot of gold and no day would be better than the day that has just passed.

People were so nice, so helpful and thoughtful, they did what they could, helped in all the ways that they tried but they failed just as I had.

Most people, myself included, wish away the days and weeks. The mundane and ordinary, your weekday tasks and your evenings by the fire wishing for something different and extraordinary to happen.

I wish it was sunny, I wish winter has passed into southern climes. On Monday setting out for a difficult week at work, we think. I wish it was Friday and I could be myself once again. I wish it was Christmas. For presents and snow, for big dinners and comfort.

I wish it was the holidays.

And then one day when, older those that wished are granted all that they wished for. The wish comes true. The time spent working is past, the time, wishing they were loved or that their children loved them more, comes true.

Their children have no choice but to care for aged parents. Worry about them all the time, hope that their lives continue for a while.

The children, no longer young wish they had been a better child, a better son or daughter, A friend rather than just a child,

They wish that they had never wished the days and weeks away, they had never wished for holidays and days off as there are now so few days left. Be careful, for all that you wish for may come true.