This collection is about the journey life takes us on. It’s about growing up in wisdom and experience, wrestling with grief, learning to hope, and understanding what it means to be human. These poems follow the road that plummets down into the dark valleys, but they also take the path to the mountaintops as the sunrise peeks over the horizon. I hope you learn to see the beauty that the pain has led toward. The trail is long and gives us blisters. We might be on the ground looking up at the sky and wishing we were flying, far from the hardships down below. But even on the ground, God has a plan and a purpose for our journey. It’s about humility, trust, and faith. Don’t shy away from that journey. There is a purpose and a plan to every switchback along the trail. Maybe, just maybe, without taking your eyes off of what matters most, you’ll learn to be rooted here in these pages.