{"author":"Patrick Carman","author_id":"Patrick+Carman","total_quotes":23,"quotes":[{"text":"Twenty minutes into our walk away from the wall put us deep in a forest of fir, pine, cottonwood, and aspen trees. The lush forest floor was alive and danced with shadows cast from an endless parade of swaying trees. As we approached early evening it was cool and peaceful. The sound of the trees moving in the wind high above seemed like a friendly traveling companion, calling us farther and farther into the depths of the forest.","author":"Patrick Carman","tags":["beautiful-writing","forest","imagery","trees"],"id":17364,"author_id":"Patrick+Carman"},{"text":"I watched the night sky with it's countless stars and its moon, and I wondered about the universe and all that had been created, why the stars and the moon rose at night and the sun in the day, how vast it must be, how I could never understand the infinite measure of its size.","author":"Patrick Carman","tags":["night","stars","universe"],"id":35431,"author_id":"Patrick+Carman"},{"text":"She had long been a cold and calculating person, and yet she had never given in to the darkness entirely. She would remember her mother's touch or the voice of a lost friend, and the tiniest bit of hope would return.","author":"Patrick Carman","tags":["darkness","hope","mothers"],"id":70887,"author_id":"Patrick+Carman"},{"text":"But what was I but a scared child lost in a strange world? How could I replace all that been lost? Where was my place in the world?","author":"Patrick Carman","tags":["child","finding-your-place","land-of-elyon","lost","scared"],"id":112774,"author_id":"Patrick+Carman"},{"text":"In the morning light, I remembered how much I loved the sound of wind through the trees. I laid back and closed my eyes, and I was comforted by the sound of a million tiny leaves dancing on a summer morning.","author":"Patrick Carman","tags":["comfort","dancing","light","morning","remember","summer","trees","wind"],"id":125220,"author_id":"Patrick+Carman"},{"text":"That thing, that tiny part of The Land of Elyon, is gone but not entirely forgotten. Elyon had his reason for sending you and me on this journey. Sometimes we see something as plain as a dying leaf and our hearts grow sad, but we must always hold true and fight on, Alexa. Whatever happens to us, we will not be forgotten in the end. He will remember us.","author":"Patrick Carman","tags":["elyon","forgotten","journey","remember"],"id":136692,"author_id":"Patrick+Carman"},{"text":"My strength was returning as we went on. It occurred to me then that it was in times of struggle that I found the best parts of myself-courage, loyalty, an unexpected peace- and I always discovered what I needed to break through and go on.","author":"Patrick Carman","tags":["courage","go-on","land-of-elyon","loyalty","peace","strength"],"id":160719,"author_id":"Patrick+Carman"},{"text":"But sometimes you have to wait for an answer to come to you. Especially when the questions are difficult ones.","author":"Patrick Carman","tags":["answers","difficult","land-of-elyon","questions","waiting"],"id":161778,"author_id":"Patrick+Carman"},{"text":"There would be times in the years to come when he ( Murphy ) would accompany me back and forth between the two worlds I'd come to know. Other times, Yipes would venture out over the water, and even Matilda came along once. There were loads of clothes and seeds and jars of honey and other such things cramping our space, and children of every age moving between the pillars and The Land of Elyon. And always, always, there was Marco at the pedals, helping guide the way across the Lonely Sea. I have yet to venture off the course that was set for me by Sir Alistair Wakefield, but I see certain things on the old maps that make me curious. Are there other places to explore, somewhere in the immeasurable reaches of the Lonely Sea? Maybe my own children or their children will find these strange spots on the map. My way is set an in stone, and I don't feel the need to veer off any longer. It has taken many days of searching and fighting, but in the end I have found what I was looking for. I have found my way home.","author":"Patrick Carman","tags":["children","course","curiosity","fighting","future","home","land-of-elyon","searching","story","years"],"id":178070,"author_id":"Patrick+Carman"},{"text":"I was beginning to see fewer of our weaknesses and more of our strengths; the events of the day were a reminder of how each of us had certain abilities that the rest did not. It was as if we were each a part of a whole body- one the hands, another the legs, and so on- dependent on one another and working best when we performed in unity. I felt inadequate then, unsure what part of this body I might be.","author":"Patrick Carman","tags":["abilities","strengths","unity","whole","working-together"],"id":200187,"author_id":"Patrick+Carman"}],"pagination":{"page":1,"page_size":10,"total":23,"pages":3,"next":"?page=2\u0026page_size=10"}}