Sutton delves right into the questions of life, death, order, and purpose: "...Death is a strand of hair left in a comb after the body is burned. Death is memory...It is lips moving in your brain. It is giving up trying to hear it." Lyrically sharing snippets of experiences and observations about her life, her children growing up, and her parents aging and dying, Sutton's collection of essays is deep, disturbing and soothing, all at the same time. "At night memories of her dance in my mind like dandelion fluff or encircle me like a swarm of bees." And she ruminates so poignantly after her mother's death: "When my children die, no one will recall my mother. Will that be her death, or is it now?"

It is obvious from the beginning that Sutton is an experienced editor. Partly, it is obvious by the beauty of her sentences—poetic but never verbose—the stinginess with words just to assure no extras, but not to the point of being too blunt or terse. But it is most telling that Sutton is a professional because of her exceptional skill at writing extended metaphors and vivid similes. “The Fly in the Refrigerator” essay is a perfect example. That essay might ruminate in the mind, like a fly in the bedroom, forever buzzing. "At which stop would I have called the wrong turn a mistake or an unavoidable detour or the essential journey?" The essays are never pedantic, but sometimes a lesson learned is eloquently and directly shared: "This little inconsequential dog has shown me that the key word is not transcend (the 4th Noble Truth), but embrace. To not only live in the present...but to keep looking, looking often with no map and no sense of direction."

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