What wishes flicker on the tip of a little girl's tongue? Just the right dancing slippers? A doll with eyelashes that flutter open?

 

My own daughter asked for a Perplexus. I was not already informed about what they are, but the internet had an answer for me. Her older brother did the fingerwork and it sits even now under our tree.

 

When little girls grow up, what do they ask for, and whom do they ask? Some whisper wishes about finding a lifelong partner, to sit with on the deck as the sunset unveils its rosy wonders. Others ask for that partner, picked long ago, to change as dramatically as that dusky sky. Skies do change from cerulean to more shades of red than can be found in an art store. Partners too, have been known to change their colors.

 

One woman told me that a few years ago her husband could barely express his feelings, but now is warm and responsive. She had taken her wedding ring off, but now it shines again on her finger. The process of getting from there to here took longer than a summer eventide.

 

Another woman whose marriage was barely holding on until the last child left for college, has found a new friend in her husband. They sat on my deck this summer and smiled at each other's stories about coaching, and parenting older children. 

 

I watched Miracle on 34th Street yesterday with my twins. We laughed and cried as we snuggled through the court scene, and the little girl racing into a house for sale. There are only a few moments between the heartache of Santa Claus being called insane, and the enormous pile of letters raining down on the judge's desk. There is just a blink of time separating a child's crushed dreams for a family, and finding the perfect swing in the back yard of her new home with two married parents. 

 

I recalled one of my own miracles. When Benjamin was four, and barely speaking, one day he used the cookies that are shaped like letters to spell out "MIRACLE ON 34TH STREET". I was transported from the weighty despair of a son we could not communicate with, to watching him spell a message that erupted my own Miracle on Alden Road.

 

If I were sitting on Santa's lap right now, I know what I would ask for. I want to dance at the weddings of the people I know and love who are praying for it. And in time I want to see the wispy eyelashes of their babies flutter open.