I Wish You Enough!

Most of us have read this story on the Net for the past few years but have you really let the words sink in?

When my daughter was a wee little one, she loved to talk or rather, make sounds. Her first real word was Baba, which I am sure was just a sound but since it is what she calls my mom, we decided that it was her first word.

I always told my daughter that I loved her, no matter where we were or what we were doing. Still do. But as a toddler who could say some words, she tried to say the three words but it kept coming out at as LABU. I would hug her and say 'I love you' and she would respond back with 'LABU, mama'. It was her way to say she loved me. Even though my daughter is now 31, we still say LABU to each other. The whole family has actually taken a hold of the word and we use it with one another. LABU means I love you.

So this story has a lot of meaning to me because even though you shorten the full message, it still comes through loud and clear. And family traditions... well, you can't beat those. They keep memories alive.

For those of you who've never read it, here is the full story. By the way, I wish you enough...

~~~~~

Recently, I overheard a mother and daughter in their last moments together at the airport as the daughter’s departure had been announced.

Standing near the security gate, they hugged and the mother said: “I love you and I wish you enough.”

The daughter replied, “Mom, our life together has been more than enough. Your love is all I ever needed. I wish you enough, too, Mom.”

They kissed and the daughter left.

The mother walked over to the window where I sat. Standing there, I could see she wanted and needed to cry.

I tried not to intrude on her privacy but she welcomed me in by asking, “Did you ever say good-bye to someone knowing it would be forever?”

“Yes, I have,” I replied. “Forgive me for asking but why is this a forever good-bye?”

“I am old and she lives so far away. I have challenges ahead and the reality is the next trip back will be for my funeral,” she said.

When you were saying good-bye, I heard you say, “I wish you enough.” May I ask what that means?”

 

She began to smile. “That’s a wish that has been handed down from other generations. My parents used to say it to everyone.”

She paused a moment and looked up as if trying to remember it in detail and she smiled even more.

“When we said ‘I wish you enough,’ we were wanting the other person to have a life filled with just enough good things to sustain them”.

Then turning toward me, she shared the following, reciting it from memory.

I wish you enough sun to keep your attitude bright.
I wish you enough rain to appreciate the sun more.
I wish you enough happiness to keep your spirit alive.
I wish you enough pain so that the smallest joys in life appear much bigger.
I wish you enough gain to satisfy your wanting.
I wish you enough loss to appreciate all that you possess.
I wish you enough hellos to get you through the final good-bye.

She then began to sob and walked away.

~~~~~

The World I Know...

Driving to work recently, this song came on while I was exiting off of 8 and as I rolled to a stop, for the first time, I really listened to the lyrics and it hit me hard. I couldn't stop the tears from falling as I slowly drove down the road, just listening.

I got thinking about my life, my daughter's life, my mother's life and lives of others from generations back.

I recalled a conversation with my mom about how she grew up in Japan and how war affected who she is. At 8 years old, her home was destroyed by American bombs while she and her mom where out at the grocery store. They walked through carnage of dead, burning bodies and body parts, burning buildings crumbling around them as they walked to get where their home use to be but was now flatten and burning. Everything they owned on their bodies as they stood there in fear, anger and sadness.

She came out of that a strong woman who did more for others than they do for her but the horrors she saw as a young child affected her that way. To do more for others so they never have to go what she went through. That is how she decided to live her life and continues to as she inches her way to her 80th birthday in December.

Then I looked to the other side of my family tree... my daughter. She is a young, talented, intelligent, beautiful woman, who is living her life on her terms but she works hard for everything she has. Even though war has not touched her personally, she has grown up in a society and generation where there is always war somewhere.

It got me thinking... what generation did not have war? I mean, at all. But history shows that there was never a society that was free of war. There has been fighting from the dawn of time.

Makes you wonder what kind of life it would be to turn on the news and not have anyone talk about war in some faraway land.

So, as you listen, what kind of world do you see and what kind of world do you wish for?

Here are the lyrics:

Has our conscience shown?

Has the sweet breeze blown?

Has all the kindness gone?

Hope still lingers on.

I drink myself of newfound pity

Sitting alone in New York City

And I don't know why.

Are we listening

To hymns of offering?

Have we eyes to see

That love is gathering?

All the words that I've been reading

Have now started the act of bleeding

Into one.

Into one.

So I walk up on high

And I step to the edge

To see my world below.

And I laugh at myself

As the tears roll down.

'Cause it's the world I know.

It's the world I know.

I drink myself of newfound pity

Sitting alone in New York City

And I don't know why.

So I walk up on high

And I step to the edge

To see my world below.

And I laugh at myself

As the tears roll down.

'Cause it's the world I know.

It's the world I know.