Richelle E. Goodrich

Life's lessons aren't always new. Often they're the same old worn-out truths offering us greater depths of wisdom and understanding.

Curiosity killed the cat, but not before teaching her that honey bees are not sweet, tweeting birds are slow to react, mice can serve as both toys and food, big dogs like to snuggle, falling isn__ flying, cream drips from lazy cows, water should be avoided at all costs, baths don__ require getting wet, kindness and cruelty often fall from the same hand, and engines remain comfortably warm long after the motor dies.

Why is it we must suffer the loss of something so dear before we realize what a treasure we had?Why must the sun be darkened before we feel how genuinely impossible it is to live without its warmth?Why within the misery of absence does love grow by such bounds?Why must life be this way?It is a strange existence where such suffering makes us far better people.

I'm starting to think this world is just a place for us to learn that we need each other more than we want to admit.

Me"( Notice Me)I was sent here on a journey that has no end.I hear you joke of going nowhere fast.Well, maybe life__ a joke and I__ the foolThat dreams of being first but ends up last.Life__ a trial__ sentence I can__ escape.Confusion and desperation tear me down and turn to hate.There__ so much more to figure out,But it__ growing way too late.If I could answer half the questions in my mind,If I could find the place where I belong,If words were near as strong and deep as the wall of emotions I climbThen sorrow wouldn__ be so wrong.There__ no way to make you understand.An entire symphony could not play the broken notes in one child__ soul.That child screams and no one hears her,Until the tears have dried and now she__ just too old.I don__ want to hear the philosophies, the opinions,The remarks, the horrible reasonings.Words are to pad the mind and fight with the solitude of the heart.Still, silence chills to the bone and tears the soul apart.She never means to hurt or harm, only to belong.To find the truth __id mortal lies, to sing her only song.But someday this race will end, and if she comes in last,I pray the first will look deeper than the others, smile, and then pass."Copyright 1985

Is anything truly impossible? Or is it that the path to our goals appears too unclear to follow? It seems to me that if you seek hard enough, pray hard enough, you usually stumble across a scattering of breadcrumbs that marks the trail leading to the goal you once considered beyond your reach.

Prayer, faith, and vision, plus real effort too.Blend them together for one potent brew.The magical spell to your dreams coming true.

Dear God,I hurt. Please hold me.Amen

Prayer: _The act of falling to your knees in pleading fashion, seeking help from a greater power than all else to have failed you previously.

I realized at that moment - observing his form move further away without once turning back - that I__ already begun to rebuild the imaginary wall between us. I was shielding my heart with stone cold feelings again, the only way I knew to protect it. I still planned to try my hand at prayer. If God would grant me this one request, if I could keep my only friend, I would give anything in return, even the treasured books trapped beneath my arm. I__ tasted enough of a dismal life to know that a real, true friend was of greater worth than the collection of every imagined fairytale in the world.

It's a sweet thing to sit quietly in the early-morning darkness and talk to God for a while. It's amazing what you gain from the conversation.

Flames burn so long as they are fed. Rivers rage so long as it rains. The sun rises so long as the earth rotates. Prayers are answered so long as they are uttered.Hope exists so long as there is a new day. Miracles never cease so long as there is faith. Love endures so long as kindness rules all actions. Dreams thrive so long as they are pursued. Never give up so long as you live.

Pray for good.Pray for happy.And always pray for Mom.

Some parts of life are lived in the shadows where the only sunlight you feel is the light you pray for.

I sat in a boxWith walls on each side.Not too tall.Not too wide.To think.To ponder.To pray.To hide.I sat in a box and cried.

If every day you were to walk past the same individual and ignore him, never smiling or saying hello or returning any kind gesture he extended toward you, would you expect that same individual to readily respond if suddenly you were to implore his helping hand? Then don__ ignore God. Say __ello_ now and then.

Pray as if you are fully aware that the intricate timing and rotation of every celestial entity in the universe__ncluding the coming and going of innumerable, precious life forms__oes not rest in your tiny, mortal hands.

As ofttimes as it rains on my little spot of earth, you'd think I'd grow accustomed to the gloom.