With all the terrible news that’s going on in the world, what are parents to tell their kids? Is it any wonder kids today are feeling powerless, adrift, and, well, a little out of control?

One Mom felt something had to be done. Keren Clark Posey, a licensed marriage and family therapist, decided to find a way for her family members to better connect with each other. At the same time she wanted to help them develop a belief in their ability to effect change in everyone around them: their community, their country, their world—as well as in their own lives.

“It was a tall order,” admits Keren. “Then one day the phrase, ‘Wish for the World’ just came to me.” As she envisioned them, the wishes would address areas that concern most of us, but are particularly perplexing to children: the environment, the earth’s creatures, war, disease, famine, and other seemingly intractable issues. All the wishes would prompt discussion about world healing and spirituality.

So Keren set aside a little time each night where she and her kids took turns choosing a wish for the world—each night a different wish. Not surprisingly, each wish prompted a discussion. Keren found it was a great way to spend time with her kids—and it was also a whole lot of fun.

“Over the next year, I kept a small spiral-bound notebook with all of the wishes we generated. I also began to add inspiring quotations for each wish” says Keren. “I found many of them in my personal library and others in magazines and Online.”

It wasn’t long before the therapist in Keren began recognizing the potential therapeutic value in these family discussions. The altruist in Keren also began imagining the power these wishes could generate if her small circle could be united with others.

Those musings led Keren Clark Posey, with the help of her twin sons, Ethan and Dyson, to create Wish for the World: A Daily Meditation for Personal and Planetary Peace, a book of three hundred and sixty-five wishes for the world. Each wish is accompanied by an inspirational quotation to enhance the vision of the wish or to use as a jumping off point for further conversations about the importance of each wish to the planet and humanity. “We wanted to create something that was both a world healing book and a family spirituality book.