She nervously peered over the edge.

She understood in her mind that the view was supposed to be

beautiful, but all she felt was fear. There had always been something about heights that disturbed her,
and now she could feel the full force of this unease. She reluctantly crept a little closer with the
encouragement of her friends as the fear continued to build. She couldn't help but feel that something
horrible was about to happen.

She sat down with her notebook in her hand, her mind wandering to faraway places. She paused and
considered all that had happened. It hadn't gone as expected. When the day began she thought it was
going to be a bad one, but as she sat recalling the day's events to write them down, she had to admit, it
had been a rather marvelous day.

What if dogs were racist? Would they care about fur color….. “son, only play with other tan dogs”? Or
maybe it would depend on breed, “honey, only play with other German Shepards, never poodles”.
Better yet it could depend on occupation. “I’m a sled dog while you’re only a running companion, leave
me alone”. Maybe the neighborhood they live in could be the way they choose which dogs to associate
with and which to shun? Size could be the determining factor, “see how tall that dog is, they are
probably dumb”. Luckily dogs don’t discriminate. Just watch at a dog park. Big black and white dogs wag
their tails and play with tiny tan dogs. A service dog chases after the same ball as the off-duty police dog.
So if dogs don’t discriminate then why do we?

They say you only come to peace with yourself when you know yourself better than those around you.
Derick knew nothing about this. He thought he had found peace but this was an illusion as he was about
to find out with an unexpected occurrence that he actually knew nothing about himself.

It was a scrape that he hardly noticed. Sure, there was a bit of blood but it was minor compared to most
of the other cuts and bruises he acquired on his adventures. There was no way he could know that the
rock that produced the cut had alien genetic material on it that was now racing through his
bloodstream. He felt perfectly normal and continued his adventure with no knowledge of what was
about to happen to him.

It was a good idea. At least, they all thought it was a good idea at the time. Hindsight would reveal that
in reality, it was an unbelievably terrible idea, but it would take another week for them to understand
that. Right now, at this very moment. they all agreed that it was the perfect course of action for the
current situation.

If you can imagine a furry humanoid seven feet tall, with the face of an intelligent gorilla and the
braincase of a man, you'll have a rough idea of what they looked like -- except for their teeth. The
canines would have fitted better in the face of a tiger, and showed at the corners of their wide, thin-
lipped mouths, giving them an expression of ferocity.

The box sat on the desk next to the computer. It had arrived earlier in the day and business had
interrupted her opening it earlier. She didn't who had sent it and briefly wondered who it might have
been. As she began to unwrap it, she had no idea that opening it would completely change her life.

I love the feel of wood curls flying off the lathe as I begin to shape the log in front of me. The sound of
scraping changes based on the wetness of the wood, the speed at which the lathe is turning, and the
type of cut I am making. The smell and feel of wet wood being turned are unique. The water is sprayed
out as I cut through the different layers of wood. A log can turn into anything one's imagination can
think of with the right set of hands-on tools. I have those hands and imagination. I use all of my senses
and intuition to create a beautiful object. That is why I enjoy turning wood.

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.