1.

He swung back the fishing pole and cast the line which ell 25
feet away into the river. The lure landed in the perfect spot and
he was sure he would soon get a bite. He never expected that the
bite would come from behind in the form of a bear.

2. It was the first day of the rest of her life. This wasn't the day she
was actually born, but she knew that nothing would be the same
from this day forward. Although this was a bit scary to her, it
was also extremely freeing. Her past was no longer a burden or
something that she needed to be concerned about and defend.
She threw off the covers keeping her warm in bed, placed her
feet over the side of the bed, slipped on her slipper, and took the
first step of the first day of her new life.

3. The drug seekers would come into the emergency room and
scream about how much pain they were in. When you told them
that you would start elevating their pain with Tylenol or Advil
instead of a narcotic they became nasty and combative. They
would start telling you what drug and dose they had to have to
make their pain tolerable. After dealing with the same drug
seekers several times a month it gets old. Some of the doctors
would give in and give them a dose of morphine and send them
away. Sure that was faster, but ethically she still couldn’t do it.
Perhaps that’s why she had longer care times than the other
doctors.

4. The lone lamp post of the one-street town flickered, not quite
dead but definitely on its way out. Suitcase by her side, she paid
no heed to the light, the street or the town. A car was coming
down the street and with her arm outstretched and thumb in the
air, she had a plan.
 5. As she sat watching the world go by, something caught her eye.
It wasn't so much its color or shape, but the way it was moving.
She squinted to see if she could better understand what it was
and where it was going, but it didn't help. As she continued to
stare into the distance, she didn't understand why this uneasiness
was building inside her body. She felt like she should get up and
run. If only she could make out what it was. At that moment, she
comprehended what it was and where it was heading, and she
knew her life would never be the same.

6. The words hadn't flowed from his fingers for the past few weeks.
He never imagined he'd find himself with writer's block, but here
he sat with a blank screen in front of him. That blank screen
taunting him day after day had started to play with his mind. He
didn't understand why he couldn't even type a single word, just
one to begin the process and build from there. And yet, he
already knew that the eight hours he was prepared to sit in front
of his computer today would end with the screen remaining
blank.

7. Life isn't always beautiful. That was a lesson that Dan was
learning. He also realized that life wasn't easy. This had come as
a shock since he had lived a charmed life. He hated that this was
the truth and he struggled to be happy knowing that his
assumptions weren't correct. He wouldn't realize until much later
in life that the difficult obstacles he was facing that were taking
away the beauty in his life at this moment would ultimately
make his life much more beautiful. All he knew was that at this
moment was that life isn't always beautiful.

8. The tree missed the days the kids used to come by and play. It
still wore the tire swing the kids had put up in its branches years
ago although both the tire and the rope had seen better days. The
 tree had watched all the kids in the neighborhood grow up and
leave, and it wondered if there would ever be a time when
another child played and laughed again under its branches. That
was the hope that the tree wished every day as the swing gently
swung empty in the wind.

9. The paper was blank. It shouldn't have been. There should have
been writing on the paper, at least a paragraph if not more. The
fact that the writing wasn't there was frustrating. Actually, it was
even more than frustrating. It was downright distressing.

10.Waiting and watching. It was all she had done for the past
weeks. When you’re locked in a room with nothing but food and
drink, that’s about all you can do anyway. She watched as birds
flew past the window bolted shut. She couldn’t reach it if she
wanted too, with that hole in the floor. She thought she could
escape through it but three stories is a bit far down.