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The Wishing Tree (1): A Destiny City Star Festival Tradition to be held every year; In Town Square, there is a beautiful tree with spreading branches. It is tall, but the lowest branches are easily reached. The city has decorated the tree with small, starlike ornaments and glistening lights. Thick leaves and beautiful purple flowers dangle from the branches, along with a myriad of different colored papers with handwritten wishes. Next to the tree is a stack of blank paper with twine attached, and a handwritten sign that explains:
Write your wish on a sheet of paper and tie it to the tree. Take one wish off the tree and do your best to grant it. When you have granted the wish, bury the paper in the park.
The papers are biodegradable and filled with seeds. There are no rules for wishing, but you are encouraged to wish for something vague enough that it can be interpreted in many ways so that it can be granted; you do not write your name on it, but it is encouraged to write something that doesn’t wish for self gain, but rather something that can make the world a better place. Some wishes dangling from the tree already include things like “I wish there wasn’t so much litter in the park,” “I wish someone would clean the graffiti off the old historic buildings,” and “I wish there were more volunteers at the shelter.”
If you choose to use the Wishing Tree, what do you wish for? If your wish is private, you may write it on the paper and choose a spot in the park and bury it yourself instead of hanging it on the tree.
Write your wish on a sheet of paper and tie it to the tree. Take one wish off the tree and do your best to grant it. When you have granted the wish, bury the paper in the park.
The papers are biodegradable and filled with seeds. There are no rules for wishing, but you are encouraged to wish for something vague enough that it can be interpreted in many ways so that it can be granted; you do not write your name on it, but it is encouraged to write something that doesn’t wish for self gain, but rather something that can make the world a better place. Some wishes dangling from the tree already include things like “I wish there wasn’t so much litter in the park,” “I wish someone would clean the graffiti off the old historic buildings,” and “I wish there were more volunteers at the shelter.”
If you choose to use the Wishing Tree, what do you wish for? If your wish is private, you may write it on the paper and choose a spot in the park and bury it yourself instead of hanging it on the tree.
A few days ago before her eventful encounter with some pretty mean fireflies, Satori was out by the Wishing Tree in the city. In her hands was a carefully written wish waiting to be hung.
She thought long and hard about her wish for several days. She had plenty of wishes much like a normal kid would have, but as per the guidelines, she wouldn’t be allowed to write them down. It was a slight shame considering the myriad of wishes, but even she understood why such a rule existed. It simply made sense when considering the concept behind the Wishing Tree. For strangers and possibly other fantastical phenomena to grant it, it had ot be written in good faith and in a way that could be granted. Still, Satori was hoping this sort of vague wish would be granted as it would lean towards her in favor in terms of a successful catch before summer ended.
For a while, she cycled through several wishes in her mind, some with good intentions, others with some potentially catastrophic consequences should they be granted somehow. To be fair, the worse kind of wish would probably be quietly taken down without her knowing. Putting that aside, Satori finally had her “aha!” moment and quickly wrote down her wish on the slip of paper.
In the end, she settled for this simple wish:
“I wish for bug-catching success.”
It sounded simple and innocuous enough. For her, it would mean that she would be able to successfully capture some interesting bugs, especially ones that would only reign their heads in the summer. She honestly hoped to catch an insect as cool as a rhinoceros beetle, but those didn’t exist where she lived. She could only admire them from afar in videos, books, and the internet. She eventually settled on trying to catch crickets or even some butterflies if she were lucky.
Otherwise, in terms of meeting the Wishing Tree’s criteria of only receiving benevolent wishes, Satori figured that the wish could be applied to the cultivation of insects that could assist and resist the rapture of climate change. These insects usually required the consumption of lesser and possibly meaner insects to survive, right? In that case, the wish could benefit them. Plus, if tried hard enough to recall what she learned in science class one day, certain insects such as dragonflies could consume nasty mosquitoes and finally leave kids like her be. Just thinking about them made her feel like itching her affected leg a little.
Satori eventually hung her wish on a branch she could reach herself. It seemed a little lonely seeing it sway on the low branch like that. Still, if it was anything like her, it would be resilient and withstand the wind and other elements that could tear it away from where it hung.
Afterward, Satori took a step back and snapped a photo of the tree from her phone. Now she had a new memory and evidence that she had shared a new heartfelt (?) wish with the world. May all bug catchers such as her and whoever else or whichever insect find success.
