Richelle E. Goodrich

If you ever expect to write fairytales, you've got to get your head in the clouds.

An inexhaustible imagination is the fountain of youth.

What if stars were the glimmering tears of a giant, welling in his cheeks, waiting to fall at the first tender stroke of emotion? What if the moon were a wide-open eye gazing down on our tiny, little world and its tiny, little inhabitants as they rush to and fro in pursuit of tiny, little dreams? What if the sun were the glowing heart of a great beast, pumping hot blood to keep him alive while providing warmth for our pitiful world? Ahhh, imagination; it is a wondrous thing!

My favorite words in the world are t

WRITER'S NIGHTMARE""I felt a grip on my arm that shook my body, forcefully pulling me toward a tunnel of darkness. _ The threat of consciousness stole my steady breath. For a moment I believed myself to be under siege; ripped from the sky in mid flight, my wings useless against the monstrous claws shredding my reality. I struggled to remain, to be left alone, aloft. _Reaching with wings that through the power of imagination were suddenly feathered arms, I grabbed at the air. _My hands clutched at something solid. _Wooden. _A desk. _My head spun as I held the furniture, suffering the illusion of falling. _"I was flying," I gasped, realizing suddenly that it had all been a dream. "My best fantasy ever." Lifting my head from its resting spot on the writing desk, I worked mentally to secure the fading images, hoping to capture their essence to memory before they faded away forever. _Bitterness tainted my heart against the hand that had jerked me into sensibility. _Why was I always so callously awakened while doing my best work? _Why not let me dream?

Truly, there is magic in fairy

Mistakes focus our minds on specific details. They weed out truths and afford us goals, bringing straight to our attention lessons to be learned. Mistakes are not meant to make us failures; they are meant to make us wise.

Rainy, gloomy, drab, sunless day. _There are times when hope seems entirely clouded over, when looking for the blessings in your circumstances feels like trying to catch a ray of sunshine from six feet under.

Misery is a river of tears that whispers my name in a constant hiss.

Acknowledge that some moments are just plain awful__esperate and gloomy and painful and miserable and nothing at all but anguish. No truthful, cheerful thought in the world will fix it. So let me cry awhile. Don't try to find a sunbeam where a shroud of darkness encloses me. Let me mourn. Then, after the storm, when the tears have run dry and my eyes choose to open, I will look for your rainbow of hope.

There would be no cloud-nine days without rock-bottom moments left below.

There are in this world ample reasons to be sad and disheartened, discouraged and fearful. But there are as many reasons not to be.

Happiness found me alone one day and took me by the hand.He showed me how the sun gave out its warmth across the land.Sadness found me content and smiling upward at the sun.He talked of droughts and blindness and what burning rays had done.Happiness found me alone again and pointed to the sky.He showed me how the storms created rainbows way up high.Sadness found me intrigued and took me to the rainbow__ end.He showed me how it disappeared to ne__r return again.Happiness found me alone and taught me how to sing a song.He sang a dozen melodies as I chirped right along.Sadness found me singing out and covered up his ears.He said the noise was deafening, and wished he couldn__ hear.Happiness found me alone and gave me seven coins of gold.He showed me many fancy things that merchants often sold.Sadness found me admiring the pretty things I__ bought.He pointed out my empty purse and money I had not.Happiness found me alone and helped me talk to someone new.He called the boy my friend and said that I was his friend too.Sadness found me together with my kind, attentive friend.He whispered of betrayal and how broken hearts don__ mend.Happiness found me alone and held me tight in his embrace.He whispered kindness in my ear and kissed me on the face.Sadness found me with Happiness but before he spoke at all,I told him he__ have better luck at talking to the wall.

Every heart has a layer of sadness, whether deeply buried or covering the surface for all to see.

Sadness is like sandpaper; it rubs at our sharper edges, softening and humbling us, making us ready for a coat of compassion.

Some decisions in life naturally lead to an unhappy ending, leaving you sinking by degrees in a lake of quicksand. _And, unless someone reaches to pull you out, chances are you will drown in the consequences.

My life has become a dismal sigh fettered by pangs of grief and anguished weeping.

When words can't make it better, hold my hand and don't let go.