The lotus grows in muddy water.

It does not bloom in spite of the darkness -- it blooms because of it.

That image has followed me for years. Through a career spent advocating for children who learned differently. Through a painful estrangement from my daughter and the long road back to her. Through a cross-country move, a doctoral degree, two decades in classrooms, and a manuscript that kept insisting on being written. The lotus was never just a pretty symbol. It was a survival strategy.