Do you remember when you were a kid and young enough to firmly believe that your wishes made on four-leaf clovers, dandelion puffs and birthday candles were potent – so real they were practically promised?

I’m no longer a kid, but continue to make wishes when I drop pennies in fountains or blow out the candles on my angel food cake each year. I still look for four-leaf clovers and blow dandelion puffs in the wind so I can watch them dance into the sky.

My wishes (along with a great many other things) have changed since I was a little girl. Back then, I wished as hard as I could for a horse. (I even gave the powers that be three options: I’d be equally happy with a paint, a palomino, or a lipizzan. They could choose…I wasn’t picky!) I was a ND farm girl and felt that my very own horse was the ultimate wish and the perfect vehicle for everlasting happiness.

Now I wish for other things, like health, peace and happiness for me and mine. But every single time I pluck one of those white, fluffy powder puffs and blow it into airborne particles…there is still a part of me that feels about 9 years old and eagerly anticipating my own horse. (And we did eventually get a horse, and I loved Rosie, the strawberry roan, even though I had to share her with my little sister.)

The joy of those wishes…the little girl belief that each dandelion was bringing my dreams closer to reality…those memories never fade. (11″ x 14″ acrylic on canvas)