Where do we find true fulfillment? How did we get lost along the way? These lushly written, emotionally resonant stories light candles along the path as we each search for purpose.

They will tell you that a better version of yourself is waiting to be found.

Every day, we hear a version of this message, and so we search and strive. Yet somehow none of the places we’re looking—our careers, relationships, even dreams that come true—give us lasting satisfaction. After 20 years as a professional writer of other people’s truth, Anna Mitchael found herself at the same crossroads, asking questions like “How could I have spent so much time trying to do things right only to still feel so wrong?” As threads unraveled, she saw her worldview was built on what she took to be truth from sources that were offering anything but.

They will tell you to cut the blooms off your roses so that the flowers can grow back bigger and better.

Mitchael’s spiritual quest led her to craft this exquisite collection of short, incisive vignettes. As they unfold, we observe a woman grow from childhood into early adulthood, and through a crisis that ultimately turns into an awakening. She asks questions, explores, falls, and gets back up, learning to sift the messages she is told, seeking to discover who she is and for truth beyond what the world has prescribed for her happiness.

Even with our wild differences, I still believe in something greater we share: a spirit of divine love at our core that, no matter how far away we get, will always be calling us home.

For hearts in search of lasting truth, this collection poses questions to help us find the answer.