Book excerpt: From 2012 to 2019, Robert Woerheide not only achieved professional success, he also experienced heartbreaking challenges and tragic events. During this time he was, at various points, an honors graduate student, a full-time stay-at-home dad, and an award-winning high school English teacher. With these highs came extreme lows; the full rounding of the human experience. His life fell apart, he lost his children and his freedom, only to find a new kind of wisdom that has since helped him define a new kind of success. Shared in loose chronological order, this collection of poems leads readers through seven years of insight—found in great moments of joy, even during pitfalls of hardship. From weathering a divorce, to finding true love, experiencing the magic of classroom teaching, to the loss of a career and ostracization, these poems describe the hard-won realization that wisdom exists even in the places we might least expect. And always, it is within our reach. Providence in the Fall of a Sparrow is an insightful collection of poetry that illuminates the beauty we can find even in our darkest moments.