Stumbling Toward Happiness celebrates the process of personal growth and the enduring center of joy within.

The book contains 111 linked poetry and prose meditations along the path to our inner selves. Themes include connectedness and compassion, the gifts of imperfection, radical forgiveness, healing after loss, a return to simple abundance, re-awakening to wonder, and the rediscovery of beauty in our lives.

Wishing Shelf Independent Book Award Finalist (2019)

Stumbling Toward Happiness includes poems published by esteemed literary journals, including Frogpond, Human/Kind, Modern Haiku, NHK-World Haiku Masters, Rattle, The Heron’s Nest, and tinywords. ​
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Click the unicorn to hear me read this haibun
Praise for Stumbling Toward Happiness: Haibun and Hybrid Poems:

A "continuous voice of contemplation...as readers we are invited to join in a mindful search, Stumbling Toward Happiness." - Randy Brooks for Frogpond, The Journal of the Haiku Society of America (43:1)

"Kat Lehmann [is] widely published in both tanka and haiku journals...Kat's tanka prose ...contains prose that is itself poetic." - J. Zimmerman for Ribbons: Tanka Society of America Journal (15:3)

"Lehmann creates resonance in the realm of hope, reflecting on seemingly impossible situations with magical truth....This beautifully-crafted collection demonstrates how one can cut away some of the spent parts of oneself and allow those pruning cuts to heal and re-blossom over and over. Readers will feel this rejuvenation for themselves and want to reread this collection in times of distress and also pass this book along as a gift to loved ones." - Robin Anna Smith for Human/Kind Journal (2.1)

"The individual pieces are enjoyable reads, and if one ever needed a daily pick-me-up this is a book to reach for. It is enjoyable to follow her paths, to listen to her metaphors, and see how she then returns to herself." - Paul Miller for Modern Haiku (51-2)

"It provides a sort of comfort and depicts the stresses of life as a wonderful mess that we need to navigate in order to grow." - Readers' Favorite

Five Stars..."A wonderful set of poetry that's uplifting and insightful. A FINALIST and highly recommended." - The Wishing Shelf Book Awards