These poems mix together a sense of joy and a sense of mortality. They describe who we are: human beings born with a defined stretch of life before us who are also always urged to find a life-sustaining joy in the creation that surrounds us: in the darkness that paradoxically illumines our days, in the animals that so lavishly populate our world, and in all the people - relatives, friends, and strangers - who give us love and sustain our faith. The collection is anchored by six poems, one at the end of each section, which together form their own story.