Walking Through Clear Water in a Pool Painted Black: Collected Stories

by Cookie Mueller

it was a primer for an outlaw way of life, in which every crisis or devastation was merely an opportunity to demonstrate unflappable worldliness and grace.

The sky was like black cotton batting that enveloped us in a way that felt like walking through clear water in a pool painted black.

Happiness is a fictitious feeling. It was created by imaginative storytellers for the purpose of plot building or story resolution. Fortunately most people don't know this. They think the lives they are living are actual screenplays or theater pieces. In earlier times people were convinced their lives were the fantastic tales told at the fireside. Because of this, I have seen people stop in their tracks for a moment and wonder where the plot is, but mostly they just forge on blindly.

Believing that life will someday be wonderful isn't a bad thing, in fact it is absolutely necessary.

There is a great art to handling losses with nonchalance.