In fantasy stories we learn to understand the differences of others, we learn compassion for those things we cannot fathom, we learn the importance of keeping our sense of wonder. The strange worlds that exist in the pages of fantastic literature teach us a tolerance of other people and places and engender an openness toward new experience. Fantasy puts the world into perspective in a way that 'realistic' literature rarely does. It is not so much an escape from the here-and-now as an expansion of each reader's horizons.

Wood may remain twenty years in the water, but it is still not a fish.

Sometimes living takes more courage than dying.

Touch magic. Pass it on.

How often is the passing of one storm only a prelude to another.

Time may heal all wounds, but it does not erase the scars.

Take a step, breathe in the world, give it out again in story, poem, song, art.