Song-spiration Saturday: If Wishes were ____

Posted on by Teagan Riordain Geneviene
Saturday, March 29, 2025
horses run stampede Pete Linforth Pixabay
Pete Linforth at Pixabay
Happy Saturday, everyone.   This is a wistful, wishful post.  You see, I was wishing that people would stop saying harmful things like, “You’re sad?  Then be happy instead. All you have to do is choose to be happy.”  Or equally bad, “You’re afraid?  Then just don’t be afraid.”

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God bless anybody who can simply choose that kind of thing.   I’m glad for them.  Although I wish they could realize how harmful a lot of the things they say are.  Of course, that’s me wishing, and it’s long been said that if wishes were horses, then beggars would ride. 
“If wishes were horses, then beggars would ride. On clouds of white stallions with bright fiery eyes. Chasing stars into corners of yesterday’s skies…”  That’s part of the lyrics from my song-spiration.

Do you remember Kenny Rogers?  Even before The Gambler, he was with a group called The First Edition.  They recorded “If Wishes Were Horses” in 1967.  The video is below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GmO8Ljwu-E&list=RD5GmO8Ljwu-E&start_radio=1

Now, if I can trick the WordPress jerks into NOT jamming all my paragraphs together, I have a list of “If wishes were ___” for your entertainment.
White Horses_in_camargue
Pixabay
  • If wishes were horses, then beggars would ride.
  • If wishes were fishes, then we’d all swim in riches.
  • If wishes were fishes, we’d all cast nets. (Frank Herbert, The Dune Storybook)
  • If wishes were fishes, then we’d all be fried.
  • If wishes were thrushes, then beggars would eat birds.  (A very old variant)
  • If wishes were grains of sand, the world would be a desert.  (Palle Oswald, author)
  • If wishes were wardrobes, we’d be in Narnia.  (Bryan Davis, author)
  • If wishes were wings, pigs would fly.  (Robert Jordan, author)
  • If wishes were teardrops the world would flood.  (Greg Keyes, author)
2 Women riding white horses in the clouds
by Teagan via Night Cafe
That’s as much of a WordPress battle as I can fight for now.  Wishing you a wonderful weekend and a happy new week ahead.  Friendly comments are welcome.  Hugs!

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Of course, here’s the obligatory shameless self-promotion.

The Alchemist and the Woman in Trousers: a Cornelis Drebbel Adventure

Universal Purchase Links

E-book:  relinks.me/B0F1KWXJ5P
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Paperback:  relinks.me/B0F1KVQGFR
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41 thoughts on “Song-spiration Saturday: If Wishes were ____”

  3. What a fabulous, wishful, wistful post! I never knew that expression had been used in so many places (and with things other than horses). Never understood it either. I applaud how well this post turned out (not thanks to WordPress). My easy ‘classic editor’ has gone away too and it takes me triple the time to create a post. VERY stressful. But we’ll stick with it, okay? xo

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  6. Wishes are dreams, and we all need reams. Kenny Rogers and The First Edition brings back wonderful memories. No wonder he and Dolly were kindred spirits and sang so well together. I’ll be dreaming of horses tonight.

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  9. Hello Teagan,

    I do like Kenny Rogers and that song.

    I remember hearing and liking a song by his first band – Just Dropped In .

    Luvin’ the wishes list.

    I’m in the cats thing so If wishes were cats I’d need a mansion with extensive grounds.

    Sending all my best “wishes” for good things!

    HUGS!

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  11. Lots of great horsin’ around. My favorite song by the First Edition is “Just Dropped By to check what condition my condition was in.”

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    1. Noelle, I admit that I don’t remember them well, but I remembered the name when it showed up on my search for “songs about wishes,” and then I remembered liking their music. They didn’t get a lot of airtime on my local radio station. That song came out in 1967 and I was pretty young. However, I remember Kenny Rogers’ solo career very well. I loved his duet with Dolly, Islands in the Stream. Thanks for commenting. Hugs.

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  16. Dear Teagan, I know what you mean. I remember a psychiatrist I worked with telling a depressed woman (due to a bad relationship) “you just need to choose the right man next time”, and telling her later that it would be nice it the right person came with a tattoo on their foreheads, so we’d know. He was a peculiar person whom I remember talking about his arranged marriage and how he was very happy with it and couldn’t understand westerners problems with relationships. Sometimes people say things without thinking the effect it can have on others (and a lot of times, without being conscious at all that they think others will react the same way or feel the same as they do).

    I love the song (that I hadn’t heard before, and I really like Kenny Rogers), and many of the sayings are new to me, and they’ve all made me think. Thanks for the lovely images as well, Teagan, and I hope you have a peaceful weekend and WordPress gives you a break. Oh, big hugs, of course, and love to the Scoobies!

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    1. Hi, Olga. Thanks for sharing this perfect example. I can imagine that you were astonished to hear that from a colleague. People truly don’t think.

      Although there are some who simply feel entitled to speak any harmful thought that pops into their brains (and saying it seems to convince them of their superiority). Recently a friend said to me “All of this ‘character defamation’ is wrong. Everybody does it. It doesn’t hurt anybody.”. I told her why she was wrong and used real examples of how it is harmful. Admittedly this goes beyond the off handed type of remarks. Hugs winging back to you from the Scoobies and me. 😺

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