Wishes
“The loss of material things could be replaced, the end of a situation could be changed, and losing an opportunity could bring new direction. But losing each loved one took a chunk of Callie’s heart, unable to be replaced, and altered her future. It was frightening to grasp that, possibly, she’d never be capable of loving anyone.”
“For a few seconds she longed for him, until her damaged heart broke the trance and a wave of sadness choked her. She had to look away to break the spell before it broke her.”
“If you won’t love anyone because of potential loss and heartache, you might as well put that double-edged sword through your heart for its uselessness. There’s more misery in your life without love than with it; there’s more misery in the world without love.”
“Anyone can have dreams and hope for a better future; search for opportunities and alternatives, take chances and risks—work, have faith, courage, and follow your heart. And always shine hope out in front of you like a beacon toward home. Anyone can create their own Box of Wishes for their life.”
Heart Storms
“Jade married the wrong man. But it took five years and one morning to find out. As she gathered her things to leave for her job managing a hotel in Los Angeles, her husband said, “We need to talk… now.”
“For the next few months, Jade wandered through her days looking for clues to why and how the end came, and how to go on. Well-meaning friends tried to encourage her, but their words were lies because love did notconquer all, and time had not healed her. In her world, the road to hell wasn’t paved with gold but with a golden boy who took her straight there—to a hell of a life. And when all those doors slammed shut, God didn’t open a window, ‘the devil’ did.
“He was courageous and strong—and those oh-so-mesmerizing eyes…Jade caught herself falling into them several times, losing herself. Worse, she saw in those eyes that he knew it.”
“Perfect. Sounds like a perfect plan.” Like you, Gabe, perfect in so many ways. But Jade let her sentiments go as he walked toward the door, leaving her for the night with her body revved for intimacy but hungry for love.
“After hearing Gabe’s history, Jade wondered if he was even capable of deep love. Men made advances for many reasons, especially needing sexual fulfillment. It was easy to confuse sexual intimacy with real emotion or love. Gabe was a complicated man. So was Rick. And therein was her dilemma. But better to live with a dilemma than move too fast and get involved in another disastrous heartbreak. None of them deserved more heartache in their lives.”
“Mystical, romantic, unpredictable, perfect love from a man with an imperfect, wild life. She’d been attracted to him for all those reasons, but that brought the potential for the fairytale with the disastrous ending, to crush her heart.”
“The only thing you can do is keep loving him until you don’t; be yourself without giving yourself away; ride the tides of emotion and don’t drown in them. He’ll either ride with you, or you’ll leave him behind.”
Echoes of Love
In the dead of winter, the earth and sky blended into one white, desolate scene, yet Carson saw a purity in it, a raw beauty. She thought the place wore death well even though she’d gone there in search of life; the life she was meant to live.
Each footstep she took onto the rickety wooden dock made it creak like old bones. Beyond the frozen lake, a towering mountain range clawed at the sky as if trying to escape. Neither had any chance of fleeing—the mountains stuck to the land, and Carson to the consequences of her choices.
Time seemed suspended there, the space so quiet Carson almost heard echoes, muted and far-off, like grieving voices of the past seeking a future. Breathing deep, she hoped to absorb the air’s ancient wisdom of the cycles of life, death and rebirth to start her life anew, just as this land would be reborn in spring. She shouted questions into the crackling silence but heard only the echoes of her own voice as it might’ve sounded lifetimes ago. They hinted of past mistakes, errors in judgment, weaknesses and misunderstandings, loss and regrets. They held her spirit in a death-grip so unrelenting that she knew in this place she could slip from the world as if she’d never existed at all.
