It started as a simple journal exercise. Tom wanted to list his top-ten favorite hunting, fishing and climbing trips. Once completed however, he noted something he found quite interesting. The majority of the excursions he'd noted didn't result in a harvest of fin or fur, nor did they remind him of any found and conquered summit. Instead, he had selected past trips where something remarkable had occurred and valuable lessons had been learned. This became the inspiration for his first collection of adventure essays. Within these essays, Tom unexpectedly finds himself alone and in the presence of bears in the dark hours in Jacksonville NC, he tries desperately to find help for a fallen and severely injured stranger in the mountains, he paddles among red drum eating creatures with exposed dorsal fins, he reluctantly stares down an unexplainably aggressive raccoon in a tree, he's first on scene for a river rescue involving a family member and even catches a true Halloween monster to boot. But aside from the wild and sometimes frantic incidents he's experienced while afield and afloat, the lessons woven into the fabric of these life-changing moments will challenge readers to look much deeper into their own outdoor experiences.

This book was written to inspire readers to take a moment to breathe when they next find themselves in the woods or on the water; and in that moment to drink in the surroundings and find nourishment for the soul; and to recognize this nourishment aside from the purpose they may have found themselves in the wild in the first place.