The genie grants me one wish. One? I thought we had a deal here. Three wishes. That’s how this works. I’ve seen Aladdin. I know the rules. Of course, if we’re talking about the Robin Williams Genie, then I also know one of those rules is that I can’t wish for more wishes, which is unfortunate because that was absolutely going to be Wish No. 1.

I suppose I could wish for unlimited money, but that seems dangerous. I’d probably end up with a bourbon collection that requires its own ZIP code and enough airline miles to make the TSA suspicious. I could wish for more time, and I definitely understand the appeal. There never seems to be enough of it. Work takes a chunk. Family takes a chunk. Writing takes a chunk. Sleep apparently gets whatever crumbs are left on the table.

But if I really had one wish, I think I’d wish for peace. Not some vague, everybody-hold-hands-and-sing kind of peace. I mean the kind that starts when people decide they don’t have to win every argument, correct every wrong, revisit every wound or force somebody else to see things exactly the way they do.

I’d wish for people I know and love to get along. I’d wish for people to stop spending so much energy on the things they cannot change and start paying more attention to the things they can actually do something about. I’d wish for more love, grace and mercy to move in both directions.

We’re usually pretty good at wanting those things for ourselves. We want people to understand our intentions, forgive our mistakes, recognize our pain and give us room to be imperfect. It gets harder when we’re the ones being asked to extend the same courtesy.

And before anybody reading this decides I’m writing about them, don’t worry. This wish would apply to far too many areas of my life to narrow it down that easily. It applies to family, friends, work, church, society and probably social media, although asking a genie to fix that might be beyond even Robin Williams’ powers.

It definitely applies to me, too. I’ve spent plenty of time wishing other people would let things go while holding tightly to things myself. I’ve wanted grace while being slow to offer it. I’ve focused on situations I couldn’t change while neglecting the part I actually could control: my own response.

Maybe that’s the frustrating thing about peace. We tend to think of it as something other people need to give us, when sometimes it has to begin with what we choose to do ourselves.

So yes, Genie, that’s my wish: peace. More patience. More grace. More mercy. More willingness to love people without requiring them to become exactly what we want them to be first.

Although if you happen to find a loophole in that “no wishing for more wishes” rule, I’d still like to discuss it.