What do you do when life hands you more than you thought you could carry? In this first collection of the Navigating Life’s Journey Through Poetry series, Larada Horner-Miller answers in free verse, drawing on decades of lived experience. These poems walk through the hardest chapters: the loss of a father, the unraveling of a marriage, and the quiet ache of being childless. But grief isn’t the whole story. Alongside the heartbreak are moments of whimsy, nostalgia, and wonder, from family memories to the landscapes and places that have shaped her along the way. Part memoir and part invitation, the collection moves from pain and loss toward hope and perseverance. Horner-Miller finds the universal in the deeply personal, so readers may recognize their own stories in hers. Along the way, she asks whether the life we’re living is the one we dreamed, and how we find meaning when it isn’t. Was It a Dream? is for readers who are looking for connection during life’s struggles, especially women walking their own path toward healing and self-discovery.