The A Willow, Misplaced in Memory Collection is inspired by my favorite place, which exists only in my mind. In my writing and in my daydreams, I often find myself in a place that is an amalgamation of several nature preserves in northern Illinois and a vivid early childhood memory of an enormous weeping willow draped over a pond. The older I get, the more I find myself daydreaming about the prairies and wooded back roads where I spent my youth wandering around with my closest friends. The more emotionally distraught I feel, and the more chaotic the world becomes, the more my spirit yearns to return to the prairie preserve that exists only in my mind with its stately willow, blowing gently in the breeze.