The amber droplet hung from the branch, reaching fullness and ready to drop. It waited.

While many

of the other droplets were satisfied to form as big as they could and release, this droplet had other

plans. It wanted to be part of history. It wanted to be remembered long after all the other droplets

had dissolved into history. So it waited for the perfect specimen to fly by to trap and capture that it

hoped would eventually be discovered hundreds of years in the future.

Here's the thing. She doesn't have anything to prove, but she is going to anyway. That's just her

character. She knows she doesn't have to, but she still will just to show you that she can. Doubt her

more and she'll prove she can again. We all already know this and you will too.

He was an expert but not in a discipline that anyone could fully appreciate. He knew how to hold the

cone just right so that the soft server ice-cream fell into it at the precise angle to form a perfect cone

each and every time. It had taken years to perfect and he could now do it without even putting any

thought behind it. Nobody seemed to fully understand the beauty of this accomplishment except for

the new worker who watched in amazement.

What have you noticed today? I noticed that if you outline the eyes, nose, and mouth on your face

with your finger, you make an "I" which makes perfect sense, but is something I never noticed

before. What have you noticed today?

I'm meant to be writing at this moment. What I mean is, I'm meant to be writing something else at

this moment. The document I'm meant to be writing is, of course, open in another program on my

computer and is patiently awaiting my attention. Yet here I am plonking down senseless sentiments

in this paragraph because it's easier to do than to work on anything particularly meaningful. I am

grateful for the distraction.

She looked at her little girl who was about to become a teen. She tried to think back to when the girl
had been younger but failed to pinpoint the exact moment when she had become a little too big to

pick up and carry. It hit her all at once. She was no longer a little girl and she stood there speechless

with fear, sadness, and pride all running through her at the same time.

Stranded. Yes, she was now the first person ever to land on Venus, but that was of little

consequence. Her name would be read by millions in school as the first to land here, but that

celebrity would never actually be seen by her. She looked at the control panel and knew there was

nothing that would ever get it back into working order. She was the first and it was not clear this

would also be her last.

It seemed like it should have been so simple. There was nothing inherently difficult with getting the

project done. It was simple and straightforward enough that even a child should have been able to

complete it on time, but that wasn't the case. The deadline had arrived and the project remained

unfinished.

"Explain to me again why I shouldn't cheat?" he asked. "All the others do and nobody ever gets

punished for doing so. I should go about being happy losing to cheaters because I know that I don't?

That's what you're telling me?"

He heard the crack echo in the late afternoon about a mile away. His heart started racing and he

bolted into a full sprint. "It wasn't a gunshot, it wasn't a gunshot," he repeated under his

breathlessness as he continued to sprint.

It was a question of which of the two she preferred. On the one hand, the choice seemed simple.

The more expensive one with a brand name would be the choice of most. It was the easy choice.

The safe choice. But she wasn't sure she actually preferred it.
There are only three ways to make this work. The first is to let me take care of everything. The

second is for you to take care of everything. The third is to split everything 50 / 50. I think the last

option is the most preferable, but I'm certain it'll also mean the end of our marriage.

She was in a hurry. Not the standard hurry when you're in a rush to get someplace, but a frantic

hurry. The type of hurry where a few seconds could mean life or death. She raced down the road

ignoring speed limits and weaving between cars. She was only a few minutes away when traffic

came to a dead standstill on the road ahead.

Don't be scared. The things out there that are unknown aren't scary in themselves. They are just

unknown at the moment. Take the time to know them before you list them as scary. Then the world

will be a much less scary place for you.

"Begin today!" That's all the note said. There was no indication from where it came or who may have

written it. Had it been meant for someone else? Meghan looked around the room, but nobody made

eye contact back. For a brief moment, she thought it might be a message for her to follow her

dreams, but ultimately decided it was easier to ignore it as she crumpled it up and threw it away.

He took a sip of the drink. He wasn't sure whether he liked it or not, but at this moment it didn't

matter. She had made it especially for him so he would have forced it down even if he had

absolutely hated it. That's simply the way things worked. She made him a new-fangled drink each

day and he took a sip of it and smiled, saying it was excellent.

I'm going to hire professional help tomorrow. I can't handle this anymore. She fell over the coffee

table and now there is blood in her catheter. This is much more than I ever signed up to do.

I recently discovered I could make fudge with just chocolate chips, sweetened condensed milk,
vanilla extract, and a thick pot on slow heat. I tried it with dark chocolate chunks and I tried it with

semi-sweet chocolate chips. It's better with both kinds. It comes out pretty bad with just the dark

chocolate. The best add-ins are crushed almonds and marshmallows -- what you get from that is

Rocky Road. It takes about twenty minutes from start to fridge, and then it takes about six months to

work off the twenty pounds you gain from eating it. All things in moderation, friends. All things in

moderation.

"Explain to me again why I shouldn't cheat?" he asked. "All the others do and nobody ever gets

punished for doing so. I should go about being happy losing to cheaters because I know that I don't?

That's what you're telling me?"

The chair sat in the corner where it had been for over 25 years. The only difference was there was

someone actually sitting in it. How long had it been since someone had done that? Ten years or

more he imagined. Yet there was no denying the presence in the chair now.