Every week in Southern California I help out a friend at her office and bring my two children with me. For the past year a new strip mall was being built across the street. One day as walls were added to the foundation my daughter exclaimed excitedly "Mom the icecream store is almost here". I acknowledged her without thinking too much about what she said. Then the next week she said again "Mom the icecream store is just about here". Well this went on for several months as the construction continued.

After several months the strip mall was nearly finished and my daughter got very excited about the icecream store. Then the strip mall was finished and the "for lease" signs hung in each store.

Then it occurred. The first store to appear was a Haagan Daz icecream store. All the other stores were empty. I couldn't believe it. But my daughter matter of factly exclaimed - there is my icecream store. Mom can we go get icecream?

Now my daughter has an uncanny ability to get her wishes to come true. She figures out clever ways to get us to take her to her favorite places or to set up playdates with her various friends. But this blew me away.

From my daughter I realized that dreams and wishes are very powerful things. Now we adults have dreams and wishes all the time. How come they don't always come true? They don't come true to the degree that we doubt them. Could it be that simple?

Well obviously my daughter had no doubt about her icecream store. She didn't think about the cost of the lease and who could afford a space there and what stores would work best and the many practical uses for the spaces such as dry cleaning or shoe repair. No - she wanted an icecream store and she was going to get an icecream store and that was that. Simple, light and very effective. And the world bent to her wishes.

So now I practice the art of wishing in the style that can be found in children throughout the world. My wishes are light with magical fairy dust sprinkled upon them and without a shred of seriousness or doubt. If I find these gloomy adult habits sneaking in then I hang out with my daughter and son some more and play with them and recapture that sparkle that so easily emanates from the both of them.

Do you have wishes or dreams? Would you like them to come true? Then perhaps my story will help you achieve them. Remember it's the lightness and the unseriousness of the dreams that matter. And of course completely believing in your ability to make your dreams a reality.