Life is a series of passages:

We are born. We take our first steps, say our first words.

We move through being toddler to kindergarten to adolescence—with all the mental and emotional growth (and torment) in between—and finally into something resembling adulthood.

We find love for the first time. Heartbreak.

We strike out on our own. We come back home.

We lose someone we love, or maybe a part of ourselves whose loss is equally tragic but an important passage in its own right. A passage to become who we truly are, to serve our greater purpose.

Time passes.

Relationships pass.

Health passes.

We have our favorite passages in books we read until the spines bend and break. Some of us have written passages we are forever embarrassed or proud of, paint ourselves from one room to another, from one moment to the next.

That is what this issue is about. Passages. Personal, emotional, physical. Internal and external, creative or otherwise. The passages we take in life develop our character. Who are you going to be? Where will you pass through to get there?