The lotus flower has symbolized transcendence, rebirth, and resilience in various human contexts throughout time and place, perhaps most notably in Buddhism. Nature, I have found, provides us with these personifications of personal development; we just have to be open and curious enough to interpret them as such. I have selected this collection of poems to reflect the turmoil and ascension, the rise and fall of my recovery over the last 7 years. My writing, I'd say, has gotten bolder with both age and experience. Unapologetic, like a cup of dark-roast coffee - no sugar added. My emotions are raw and real, and I have been nothing but honest in these pages. Life is a journey. Life is a battlefield. Life is a delicate balancing act that sometimes causes us to wobble and misjudge the plummeting plummet to the ground. But I've learned how to pluck my fallen self up - from the mud, as it will - and return in constant pursuit of this light.