The poetry in this collection is informed by the memory of ancestors and is motivated as well by my personal struggle to define a vision of life. The poems are arranged loosely into five categories: Ancestors and Memory, Passages, The Natural World, The Spiritual Life, and Love and Other Essences. The classification is loose, because each piece is part of the greater story and may play more than one such role in the telling. This work is very personal, but I share it, because this is the reason why we come to the world, to share, just in the event a word we make may create a beauty somewhere or ease some burden another may carry. I hope you find something in what is written here that helps in the celebration of life unfolding.