When you pause to really think about it, everyone has a Tucson in their lives. It is that place -- whether physical or of the heart, where one experiences breakthrough, life-defining moments. It is that situation from which you gain your greatest personal insights. My medium of self-discovery just happens to be the desert, with its earth-jolting strikes of monsoon lightning playing against a roiling, purple late summer sky. The result of my Tucson trek is bringing together this collection of short stories and poetry about discoveries of the heart and life lessons learned. When young, one thinks that all time spans before you and there is little, if any, sense of urgency. Life can fall into the very routine. Then mid-life suddenly arrives, with its enticement of renewed spontaneity and unexpected rhythms. This is the time for the Tucson experience, with its salty, savored, olive-like morsels in life, and, sometimes, an unexpected twist or two.