“Lost and Found” is the eighth themed collection from the Personal Story Publishing Project. It is 45 stories, 750-800 words each, from 45 writers sharing personal experiences from their lives on the theme of “Lost & Found: loss and discovery—trials, serendipity, and life after.”

Forty-five writers share insightful, touching, and thought-provoking stories about the trials and casualties of losing something or someone near and dear to them. Or they write of an unexpected experience, a serendipitous discovery, that like the loss changes something, changes everything. These stories from their lives reflect our collective human experience, moments that divide life into a before and after, creating at a point of transition a time of reckoning with a changed reality—something gone, something new—a past and a future.

• I know what a baby means. I wanted this one too.

• In front of us was the river, churning wildly.

• “I’m gonna smack yo’r jaws.”

• The hawk had never seen such a wild creature!

• We could see nothing in the tangle of limbs and leaves so dense it blocked moonlight—wicked snarls that old mountaineers called “heath-hells.”

• His forearm was across my throat. I felt a drop of his spit hit my face.

• Grief poured over us like a river, like the very earth was weeping.

• I can’t exactly remember why I let go of Caitlin’s hand.

• The bell rang. I was ready. Ten women. Six minutes at a time.

• Discipline was lost on the boy. Down the road, lives would be lost, and someone would pay the price.

Through 45 short stories, you share in the personal experiences of writers—both new voices and seasoned storytellers. They skillfully share and reflect on episodes from their lives, offering lessons learned, cautions for consideration, and encouragements for the journeys of other pilgrims, such as are we all. Through these stories we glean a glimpse of other lives, peeking into the travails and serendipities of others, and considering for ourselves what measure of life we have in hand from what we have lost and what we have found.