Light is the principal element in this book. Light is "on the edge," it is both the agent of perception and the last thing perceived. Hall celebrates the beauty of what is perceived as it appears or changes and the pain of that experience. The theme is loss, but things lost are willingly relinquished. The small self moves outward toward the larger, toward enlightenment. This is a book of "first" things, the first snow, the first kite, the first winter light, the spring's first bloodroot, all seen intensely as part of a wider experience. Its tone is mystical and contemplative.