ALT To the memory of Hind Rajab and all the thousands of anonymous children who died in the Gaza extermination camp and those who remain under the rubble.

ALT If you need a thread of hope to mend a tattered heart, this book is for you.

ALT To the victims, to the survivors, to the ones we lost, and to those who feel stuck somewhere in between.

ALT Dedicated to my partner, Andy, and our two beautiful boys, Phoenix and Sebastian. None of this would have been possible without the sacrifices overcome by our community.

ALT To Vittorio— Because of you, it became possible To Sarah— Because of you, it became real

ALT For my baby, who doesn't have a name yet.

ALT For Jamie, my sister, best friend, and toughest critic "This is literally the worst thing I've ever tasted!" - Jamie Cohen, a hater of rose water and cadamom, upon trying my Havdalah Snickerdoodles (page 258)

ALT To those who want and want and want, with varying degrees of success.

ALT For Isaac, who imagines otherwise

ALT To those who do not have freedom of movement (yet)

ALT To my friend Charles Kiley. Who would have thought we'd go from waiting tables, to selling copies of my first, self-published book out of the extra room in your house, to working and leading together today? I couldn't have done it without you. #outrageous #pinpong #playsomecheap

ALT To those who have been lost in the city, or found on the river

ALT For Mom, who nurtured and protected my creativity, and mental patients everywhere.

ALT For those who told me stories

ALT To JULIET and ROSAMOND. remembering the road to Stratford-on-Avon

ALT For those who told me stories and those to whom I tell them now: My grandfather, Nibaran Chandra Ghosh my mother, Tatini Banerjee, and my three men, Murthy, Anand, and Abhay

ALT & to all the princesses, to all the damsels, to all the queens. you have rescued yourselves so many times now & i am in awe of you.

ALT To a lifetime's worth of family, friends, and lovers, plus critters. "...the past is not for living in. It is a well of conclusions from which we draw in order to act." - John Berger, Ways of Seeing

ALT For all the children to whom we entrust the future

ALT For anyone who has ever dreamed, even for a second, about leaving it all behind and starting fresh. And for Angela, who gave me the nudge I needed.

ALT to the artists & dharma guides who coax us minute by minute from retold pasts & possible futures ever to the present moment