And so I just kind of wanted to start there, if you can kind of outline what those look like, and then we'll go a little bit deeper.

So yes, very good questions.

Um, Many peoples around the world, when we metaphorically try to conceive of the cosmos, the totality of all that is, for a lot of people, there's this concept of a tree that anchors the levels of reality.

Yes, the world tree.

So in Serbo-Croatian, we call that tree drvosvjeto.

It's the holy tree.

And it is...

So if you could just share a little bit about your research and how that kind of all played into writing the book.

love to start, if you don't mind, with your early experiences growing up in Chicago, especially the tension you described around language and identity.

Yes.

So I'm a Chicago native, born and raised.

to Serbian immigrant parents who decided in 1967 and 1968, my father came first about six months prior to my mom arriving, that Chicago was going to be where they wanted to escape communist Yugoslavia and escape to go there.

Now, my father didn't randomly have Chicago in mind.

His father, who was a World War II prisoner of war, actually held in a Nazi camp, but liberated by the Soviets.

And he was asked when the British eventually showed up, hey, we can grant you safe passage to London or New York.

For people who are listening who might still be discovering who they are or feel disconnected from their roots and want to reconnect or align to the things that they feel connected to, What would you say to them?