“Moisture falls from the sky, cleansing the world and sustaining precious life. But it's the gloom—the cold, dark air—that receives notice. We fail to see the miracle of raindrops through our own tears.”
Source: Smile Anyway: Quotes, Verse, & Grumblings for Every Day of the Year
“As ofttimes as it rains on my little spot of earth, you'd think I'd grow accustomed to the gloom.”
Source: Smile Anyway: Quotes, Verse, & Grumblings for Every Day of the Year
“A Wish on the Sun"
"I see the world beyond a tiny window that allows a glimpse of Heaven into my life. Those who dwell in that enviable light cannot hear me through the glass that muffles my cries. They do not appear to see my face pressed against this barrier.
I watch them live, carefree and smiling. Even when our eyes lock—mine wide and weary—theirs squint beyond notice of me. They can't peer past the glass, the sunlight glaring off its surface. They don't see me. They won't see me.
I make a wish on the sun, staring into its fiery brightness, imagining it blinding me to the beauty beyond my reach. Would my hell feel so awful then? The sun, this nearest star, absorbs my deepest wish for the thousandth time. 'Save me! Hold my hand! Pretend to care!'
The light is blocked by a figure stepping past my window, and I feel the universe turn its cold shoulder on me. Despair smothers the hope that made my lips move in utterance of a desperate wish. It ebbs and weakens, but it does not die. The flicker of an ember remains, enough to ignite hope again—another time.
All storms eventually cease, do they not?
Once more, I press my face against the glass to view a glimpse of Heaven lived by the undeserving. I savor the sunlight, the only thing powerful enough to penetrate the window that bars me in hell. The warm rays touch me. I imagine God's fingers caressing my face—and the dying ember of hope suddenly inflames.”
Source: Smile Anyway: Quotes, Verse, & Grumblings for Every Day of the Year
“There is a point when the anguished soul finally despairs. A moment in life when the heart, the will, even the spirit crumbles. Some say that after much grief and drowning in tears, it is possible to pick up the pieces and carefully repair what was shattered.
I say nay.
For the chains of despair have no key, and the soul destroyed by that monster can never hope to be unaffected. There are things done that cannot be undone.”
Source: Smile Anyway: Quotes, Verse, & Grumblings for Every Day of the Year
“I settle into my imagination so that I might be someone when the real world tells me I'm no one.”
Source: Smile Anyway: Quotes, Verse, & Grumblings for Every Day of the Year
“I love words. I crave descriptions that overwhelm my imagination with vivid detail. I dwell on phrases that make my heart thrum. I cherish expressions that pierce my emotions and force the tears to spill over. In essence, I long for a writer's soul sealed in ink on the page.”
“Perhaps, if you weren't so busy regarding my shortcomings, you'd find that I do possess redeeming qualities, discreet as they may be. I notice when the sky is blue. I smile down at children. I laugh at any innocent attempt at humor. I quietly carry the burdens of others as though they were my own. And I say 'I'm sorry' when you don't. I am not without fault, but I am not without goodness either.”
Source: Smile Anyway: Quotes, Verse, & Grumblings for Every Day of the Year
“Kindness is a magical spell—performed by enlightened beings—meant to enchant hearts and lift weary souls that they might fly.”
Source: Making Wishes: Quotes, Thoughts, & a Little Poetry for Every Day of the Year
“Lift up your eyes and see the good in the world, for we are people with an amazing capacity to do great good. And if only the minority choose to exercise this capacity to the smallest degree, oh how wondrous and sweet the deeds performed at but a few hands!”
Source: Slaying Dragons: Quotes, Poetry, & a Few Short Stories for Every Day of the Year
“I wish everyone had someone who never popped their balloons.”
Source: Making Wishes: Quotes, Thoughts, & a Little Poetry for Every Day of the Year
“I believe life is an education meant to teach us the need to be better people. And I believe this learning often takes place through trial and error which may mean being an awful person at times before clearly seeing and grasping the necessity to improve. If you don't agree with me, just ask Mr. Ebenezer Scrooge. I think Charles Dickens got it quite right.”
Source: Making Wishes: Quotes, Thoughts, & a Little Poetry for Every Day of the Year
“Be good.
See good.
Choose good.
It's a no-brainer.”
Source: Making Wishes: Quotes, Thoughts, & a Little Poetry for Every Day of the Year
“Kindness is still the best antidote.”
Source: Making Wishes: Quotes, Thoughts, & a Little Poetry for Every Day of the Year
“Choose to be good and kind and tolerant regardless of the situation or who's involved, because life is more a matter of developing character than of dishing out just rewards.”
Source: Smile Anyway: Quotes, Verse, & Grumblings for Every Day of the Year
“Evil exists in this world because it has its place. For had you never sat blindly through the darkness of night, your eyes wouldn't turn toward the sunrise to appreciate its warmth and illumination.”
Source: Smile Anyway: Quotes, Verse, & Grumblings for Every Day of the Year
“I see the good in the world because I choose to. I don't imagine that it's there; it's there waiting to be noticed.”
Source: Smile Anyway: Quotes, Verse, & Grumblings for Every Day of the Year
“Be nice. Be good. Be happy.
If people everywhere were to keep to this simple creed, there'd be few problems left in the world to fret about.”
Source: Smile Anyway: Quotes, Verse, & Grumblings for Every Day of the Year
“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.”
Source: Smile Anyway: Quotes, Verse, & Grumblings for Every Day of the Year
“People will insist on building high and wide barriers directly in your path, often with the intent of closing you in. If you treat these obstacles like fencing walls, they will prove mightily so. I choose to see them as grand towers meant to be scaled and conquered, providing an added victory as well as a great view of the journey ahead.”
Source: Making Wishes: Quotes, Thoughts, & a Little Poetry for Every Day of the Year
“The key to success is having no qualms about failure.”
Source: Smile Anyway: Quotes, Verse, & Grumblings for Every Day of the Year
“I can overlook the lie; what's harder to ignore is the grotesque way it has marred your character.”
Source: Slaying Dragons: Quotes, Poetry, & a Few Short Stories for Every Day of the Year
“Lies don't fit snugly into disguises. Eventually the cloak falls off and you're left staring at the naked truth which is always an uncomfortable situation.”
Source: Making Wishes: Quotes, Thoughts, & a Little Poetry for Every Day of the Year
“Barking at people earns their respect about as effectively as staring into the sun improves your vision.”
Source: Slaying Dragons: Quotes, Poetry, & a Few Short Stories for Every Day of the Year
“Fear is not respect. It is but a conniving, little weasel next to that mighty lion. They are a far, far cry from the same animal.”
Source: Slaying Dragons: Quotes, Poetry, & a Few Short Stories for Every Day of the Year
“Had she any respect for him at all, his words would've affected her. But no value accompanies comments spewed from the mouth of a brute.”
Source: Smile Anyway: Quotes, Verse, & Grumblings for Every Day of the Year
“When you devalue ethics and morals by proclaiming that our attitude toward them should be casual or lenient, you can't be surprised by a rising generation who then behaves disrespectfully, treating life, people, and choices as if they possess little value or worth. For whether or not that was the intention, society has taught them to believe thusly.”
Source: Smile Anyway: Quotes, Verse, & Grumblings for Every Day of the Year
“Disappointment is really just a term for our refusal to look on the bright side.”
Source: Smile Anyway: Quotes, Verse, & Grumblings for Every Day of the Year
“Life can seem like a gloomy wait in the thick of black shadows.
And still there are those who smile at the darkness, anticipating the beauty of an eventual sunrise.”
Source: Slaying Dragons: Quotes, Poetry, & a Few Short Stories for Every Day of the Year
“Hope is the fuel within all human souls.
Eliminate hope—nothing moves, nothing grows.”
Source: Slaying Dragons: Quotes, Poetry, & a Few Short Stories for Every Day of the Year
“Imagined happiness is still happiness.”
Source: The Tarishe Curse
“The cup is both half full and half empty; it has never been one or the other. Stop obsessing over a trivial point and be thankful you have something to drink.”
Source: Slaying Dragons: Quotes, Poetry, & a Few Short Stories for Every Day of the Year
“Laugh as if it's funny, embrace as if it's love, and smile anyway.”
Source: Smile Anyway: Quotes, Verse, & Grumblings for Every Day of the Year
“Optimism: That effervescent, blindingly- bright, perky, chipper, twittering quality you want to squash out of annoying people.”
Source: Smile Anyway: Quotes, Verse, & Grumblings for Every Day of the Year
“Afraid of offending with an off word or the slightest insensitivity, I keep an unobtrusive and silent distance. Nevertheless, my pursed lips and offish stance are perceived as cold, managing to offend all.”
Source: Slaying Dragons: Quotes, Poetry, & a Few Short Stories for Every Day of the Year
“The sweetest melody that plays
on starry nights and wintry days,
most soothing to my listening ears
and calming to beleaguering fears,
I call a symphony on air―
the song of sweet, still silence rare.”
Source: Making Wishes: Quotes, Thoughts, & a Little Poetry for Every Day of the Year
“Statistics, likelihoods, and probabilities mean everything to men, nothing to God.”
Source: Smile Anyway: Quotes, Verse, & Grumblings for Every Day of the Year
“Relax; the world's not watching that closely. It's too busy contemplating itself in the mirror.”
Source: Making Wishes: Quotes, Thoughts, & a Little Poetry for Every Day of the Year
“Two powerful, little words I've learned to use when facing challenges, fears, and doubts—so what?”
Source: Smile Anyway: Quotes, Verse, & Grumblings for Every Day of the Year
“Poetry is the wailing of a broken heart―the etched sorrows of despairing souls. These artful words are an exclamation in rare colors expressed noiselessly on parchment.
Poetry is the unheard cry of a flower, wilting. It is a humble, lucent tear shed with meaning. It is the lovely portrayal of ugliness and the bitter edge of sweet.
Poetry speaks to the spirit by piercing understanding. It interprets all senseless truths―beauty, love, emotion―into sensible scrawl.
Poetry is vague affirmation and bewildering clarification. Like the most poignant of emotions, we understand the essence but cannot adequately do it verbal justice, crippled by inherently weak tongues.
A spiritual soothsayer, poetry is the closest thing to expression of feelings unutterable.”
Source: Making Wishes: Quotes, Thoughts, & a Little Poetry for Every Day of the Year
“Sunlight’s warmth on my face awoke me in the morning. I didn’t remember falling asleep or how I came to be in my own bed. But I did recall nightmares. Awful nightmares featuring Gwen.
I turned my head to stare out an open window where the sun shone in full splendor, bleaching a clear sky enough to tell it was going to be a beautiful spring day. The air smelled of rain from overnight showers, mixed with a strong floral scent. A large lilac bush outside was responsible for the perfume. I breathed in the clean and fragrant air.
My eyelids fluttered, blinking at a stunning reflection of daylight off the glass. The blue beyond gave an exquisite glow to my room. All of it was an invitation to bask in a new day—an invitation I declined because none of that mattered to me. The world might as well come to a dark and ugly end. I saw no reason for beauty or life to go on so long as Gwen was lost.
Rolling over in bed, I felt the vice grips wrench at my heart again as I cried myself back to sleep.
from Phantom's Veil”
“Such a nasty bruise,” he says, staring straight into my eyes. I am stunned he can see it. Delicate to the touch and tender on every side, the bruise is deeper than days. My hand automatically moves to my chest.
Science taught me with valid assurance that my heart was fixed in my rib cage, but life has since shown me otherwise. My heart in fact dangles from a tangle of strings. The ends are grasped tight by numerous people who yank and release, having caused many painful bruises over time. I cry because they are invisible to most.
“Such a nasty bruise,” he repeats, tugging on my poor heart.
His kind eyes fall away from mine as I feel a squeeze on my arm. He twists it enough to show me a small, round patch of purple surrounded by a sickly yellowish corona.
“Oh. My elbow.” I let the air exhale from my lungs. Another bruise forms where my heart has hit the floor. It is jerked up again.
“Can I do anything for you?” I see in his eyes the mirror image of a finger—his finger—wrapped in one of the dangling strings. He tugs and I feel it.
“No,” I reply to his question. But it is a lie. There is something he could do, along with all who grasp a portion of the web entangling my heart. I wish they would mercifully let go.”
Source: Slaying Dragons: Quotes, Poetry, & a Few Short Stories for Every Day of the Year
“My pain builds like storm clouds―massive, dark, and heavy with teardrops. Moisture falls torrential as if my world is a violent, eternal downpour; however, at long last the source runs dry and the bitter storm does cease. Blue skies dare to glow where the gloom has dissipated. I breathe it in, hoping to cleanse my inner soul. A laden heart tells me the truth: the clear sky is an illusion. Old pain rushes back like a flood, providing means for clouds to form and expand once again until it is too much to bear and the heaviness turns to rain. I cannot find refuge from this woe. It is my never-ending heartache.”
Source: Making Wishes: Quotes, Thoughts, & a Little Poetry for Every Day of the Year
“Rain is a lullaby heard through a thick, isolating blanket of clouds. It is the tinkling harp of water droplets; a moist breath whistling through willow reeds; a pattering beat background to the mourner's melody. Rain is a soft song of compassion for the brokenhearted.”
Source: Smile Anyway: Quotes, Verse, & Grumblings for Every Day of the Year
“Words never fade away but echo on for eternity. Let your echo ring sweet.”
Source: Making Wishes: Quotes, Thoughts, & a Little Poetry for Every Day of the Year
“If God were to make a million lovely flowers in your image and plant them in a garden with you among them, I would still know you by your scent and by the feel of your petals and by the crazy way you lean towards my light whenever I draw near.”
Source: Slaying Dragons: Quotes, Poetry, & a Few Short Stories for Every Day of the Year
“Even if the grass is greener on the other side of the fence, keep to your own side; it's where you belong. There you can plant your own grass and tend to it.”
Source: Slaying Dragons: Quotes, Poetry, & a Few Short Stories for Every Day of the Year
“Be careful what you wish for. It may turn out that making the wish was the only good part.”
Source: Making Wishes: Quotes, Thoughts, & a Little Poetry for Every Day of the Year
“Be not wishing and pining but thankfully content. For it is a short bridge between wanting and regret."
- from "Dimpellumpzki”
“No misery compares to staring at a clear night's sky with arms stretched toward a coveted star, wishing on what is forever out of reach.”
Source: Smile Anyway: Quotes, Verse, & Grumblings for Every Day of the Year
“Pray each morning and each night.
Talk to God and be polite.
Tell Him what you're grateful for.
Leave your troubles at His door.
Share your wishes, needs, and hopes.
Ask God how to bravely cope.
Tell Him all you learned today.
Say the things you need to say.
Beg forgiveness for your sins.
Pray to live with Him again.
Speak with earnest heart and soul.
He will listen. This I know.
For prayer is hope put to the test.
And hope is faith in what is best.
Faith is power to do great things.
Thus, prayer is faith's enabling wings.”
Source: Making Wishes: Quotes, Thoughts, & a Little Poetry for Every Day of the Year