We have all heard the saying that if we can’t say something nice then we shouldn’t say anything at all. That has not been an issue for me because I am the type that listens more than I speak.

I have received more entertainment from watching and listening to the crazy things that people do. It’s like a live version of the Jerry Springer Show.

I was sitting in a restaurant recently looking at the menu trying to pretend that I wasn’t going to order the giant sized banana split when I heard the people in the booth behind me talking. I heard one complain about his job and how he wished he would win the lottery so he could quit. Another chimed in that he wished his wife would quit nagging him about drinking too much.

They continued airing their grievances and made it clear that they were unhappy with their lives and how they wished things were different.

I sat in my booth listening to them talk. I didn’t realize how much I was actually focused on them until the server came by to check on me and I said, “Shhhh I can’t hear.”

Once I realized what I had done I tried to bring her back but it became clear that I had burned that bridge and I knew my banana split was now nothing more than a dream. I sat there in the booth wishing I could go back in time and change my actions.

I then realized that many times in our lives we waste our time wishing for things instead of making the best of what we have. The guys in the booth behind me were wasting their time wishing for things that would never come, and I was wasting mine by wishing for my banana split.

It was then that a memory was sparked and I began to think about a book that my mother used to read to me when I was young.

Books have always been a wonderful love for me. That love was first sparked when my mother read all my favorite bedtime stories to me.

I was reminded of one of those stories that was called, The Three Wishes. This was a story about a poor, but happy, couple who received three wishes from a fairy. The wife only having soup for dinner wished for sausages and they magically appeared.

Angered at the waste of a wish, the husband became angry and wished the sausages were stuck in his wife’s nose.

They spent the rest of the evening arguing and then realized they had to spend their last and final wish on removing the sausages from the wife’s nose.

The couple in the story were happy until the wishes came into their lives, and I began to think how many times we wish for this thing or the other and not stop to realize that we are already happy.

If I received three wishes, what would I wish for? A happy family? No I already have that. A big house? No, I have that as well. What about a lot of money? I am already paying my bills and have enough left over to super-size my meal at McDonald’s. What more could I want?

I then realized that wishes were not needed and taking action was way more productive than just wishing for it magically to happen.

I got up and saw the server mean mugging me as I walked out. I walked up to her and handed her the tip I would have left if I had actually ordered anything and I wished that she have a good day. I know I will.