Somewhere on the outskirts of the universe, there was once a little shop. It hadn’t had a sign on it for a long time. The sign had been blown away by a hurricane, and the owner decided not to put up a new one since all the locals knew that the shop was selling wishes.
One could buy almost anything here: huge yachts, penthouse apartments, marriage, the post of vice president in a big company, money, children, a favorite job, a perfect body, winning a competition, luxury cars, football clubs, power, success, diamond rings, and many other things. The only two things that were not for sale here were life and death: these goods were handled by the head office, located in another galaxy.
Every visitor who came into the store had to find out the price of their wish first. There were also people who never visited the shop; they just stayed home and did nothing to realize their dreams. The prices in the shop varied greatly. For example, to get the job of your dreams, you had to give up the stability and predictability that you had in your life before. You had to be ready to plan your own future, to believe in your own strength, and to allow yourself to do what you are passionate about rather than what you have to do.
The price for power and authority was higher: a person had to relinquish their beliefs and think highly of themselves, not caring what other people thought about them. They also had to be able to make rational arguments and know how to say ’no’ to others.
Some prices seemed really strange. Marriage cost almost nothing, but happily married life was very expensive: full responsibility for your own happiness, the ability to enjoy life, knowing your desires, abandoning the desire to conform to others, the ability to appreciate what you already have, giving yourself permission to be happy, an understanding of your own worth and significance, rejecting the concept of being ’a victim,’ being prepared to lose some of your friends.
Not everyone who came to the store was ready to pay for their desires. Some left immediately after they saw the prices. Others stood thoughtfully, counting their cash on hand and wondering where they could get more. Some customers complained that the prices were too high and tried to get a discount.
There were also those who had been saving for their most cherished wishes and left the shop with their dreams wrapped in lovely tissue paper. The other customers stared enviously at these lucky people and thought that they got their wish for free without much work just because they were friends with the owner.
The owner of the store was asked to lower the prices many times, but he always refused to do this. He said that unless the prices were high, the quality of the wishes would suffer.
Whenever he was asked if he was afraid to go bankrupt, he shook his head and said, ’There will always be the brave ones who are willing to take risks, to change their lives, and to abandon the familiar and predictable things. They are able to believe in themselves and their dreams, and they will find the necessary resources to pay for making their wishes come true.’
P.S. On the door of the shop there was a poster: ’If your wish hasn’t come true, you haven’t paid for it yet.’
Preview photo credit: pexels
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