Book excerpt: There comes a point in our lives where we need to sit back and take time to reflect on all the things that led us to where we are standing in this exact moment. Most commonly, we will not take that moment to reflect until we are knee deep in the quicksand of our hardest times. When we are at this point, we tend to feel as if there is no way out of the current situation. To us, it is as if the lights at the end of the tunnel were only a myth used to convince us to continue further into the darkness until we become forever lost. For those of us that never give up, we have experienced the proof that every rocky road eventually smooths out and no storm lasts forever. For those of us that are currently standing in the quicksand, the poetry within the pages of this book will provide a brief synopsis of hard times, good times, difficult realizations, the enjoyment, and indulgence of nature's incredible beauty, and a coming to faith that there is something greater, not only than us, but also within us.