This collection, the thinkings found amongst these pages, are the ointment to heal; the writings to restore and the words to protect. This mind's rawness — raw pain, confusion, and beauty, soothed with craft.

Christina L. Halstead is a medical student at University of Virginia School of Medicine, soon pursuing pediatrics. She processes, celebrates, and commemorates the human experience — found rich in nature, in relationships, in family, in travel, and in medicine — through poetry. Here she shares her reflections and self-discoveries, inspired by her own narrative, as well as those first told by others.