This wonderful book evolved as the author grappled with loss and grief during the COVID-19 pandemic. Winograd's motivating desires to reflect, feel, and think combine with her author's voice and artist's vision to create a masterpiece. Simple and profound, the images and words are woven together to create a witness to life's unexpected joys and ever-renewing beauty, as well as its calls to experience spiritual perceptions. A truly magnificent opus, the work, winner of The Book Excellence Award, is a feast of ethereal and visual qualities in nature and humankind. The author's text and photographs reflect her spiritual, emotional, and physical journeys as she finds life and renewal amid her feelings of personal and global brokenness.

Developed near Winograd's home in Colorado, the motivations and structure are somewhat reminiscent of Henry David Thoreau's Walden, Anne Morrow Lindbergh's Gift From The Sea, and, for its blend of imagery, text, and the theme of exploration, Katie Ives's Imaginary Peaks: The Riesenstein Hoax and Other Mountain Dreams. Small tasks and her observations of nature, such as birds, flowers in unexpected places, water, a hidden wasp's nest, a variety of fish and birds in, on, and near lakes, and a multitude of other absolutely beautiful sights which are replicated in many different patterns, colors, styles and moods become photographs that inspire the author to many wonderings. Readers will be enchanted by the book's beauty and renewed by the author's appreciation and surprise at the unexpected lessons of nature, as well as her spiritual quest. Winograd’s book is truly a treasure to be cherished.

RECOMMENDED by the US Review

A 2025 Eric Hoffer Book Award Art Category Honorable Mention.

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