Hello my beautiful and oh so creative and talented Goddesses and Gods! This post and story was inspired by the photo above, “The Water Palace,” by the lovely and talented  Catalina Staheli. By some awesome stroke of luck I happened to come across her beautiful photo on Flickr. Not only did Catalina share her photo, she invited folks to share the story the photo tells. Catalina wrote:

The Water Palace
This is another creation for the Visionaire Graduation gallery, featuring an idea I was playing around with….the concept of being exposed to imagination. Where our dreams could soar into the realms of fantasy….and out of that came this vision. I called this picture “The Water Palace”, and we see here a girl in her nightgown, feeling down the hallway, but whether she is running to something…or from….is up to you. As your imagination takes hold and your creativity spreads its wings, the girl’s journey can flow into an incredible story just waiting to be shared.

I hope you enjoy and I always love feedback! Feel free to share where your imagination took you! 😀

I took Catalina up on her gracious offer and below is the story that her beautiful photo and prompt inspired. I hope you like it!

Please feel free to share your own story inspired by the featured photo, either in the comments below this post or in your own post. If you post it on your blog, please be sure to link back to this post, AND include a link to Catalina’s Flickr post, as it is her photo that she graciously posted publicly. Make sure she gets the credit she deserves 😊  Now on to the story!

The Land of Dreams and Fantasies

by Prettyflower Vale

She knew it was there, unseen but felt. She ran through the darkness that seemed unending; she knew it was there. Somehow she would get there. Finally, when it seemed she had been running forever, and felt as if the running might never stop, the black fog dissipated, and she arrived. She laughed, and danced, and cried with joy. She KNEW it was there, and she was right!

It was the land she had always escaped to in her mind…it was the land of her dreams and fantasies. It was beautiful, as she had known it would be. It was dark, but not the dark of the black fog that had trapped her for so long, the one that didn’t let any light in. No, this was the dark of the night sky, filled with shining stars, vast galaxies, and colorful quasars and pulsars, with nebulas and comets and all the wonders of the heavens!

It was light, it was pale dawns and vibrant sunsets, it was sunlight shining on flower petals, it was the moon casting a lovely silver white anti-darkness.

It was a majestic forest and a serene meadow and a pretty flowered vale. It was a castle with stone columns built on a lake of sparkling ice. It was elves and faeries and dragons, oh my! It was heaven.

She stopped and turned for one last look to where she had left her old, worn out body and her grieving family behind, on the other side of the veil of black fog. She sent them her love, then turned back around, and smiled. She was young and strong again, and she was so ready to enjoy new adventures in the land of dreams and fantasies.

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Dedicated to my beloved mother. May she be enjoying wondrous adventures in her land of dreams and fantasies.