We expect inspiration in sunsets, blooming flowers, and mountain-top views. And in turn we’ve come to not expect it elsewhere: in the tragic or mundane. This essay collection challenges this categorization of wonder, light, and beauty. Fourteen authors share their experiences of finding light in unexpected places. In a disaster, on a dreary morning commute. In squawking gulls, aging bodies, and seeing the way a friend signs his name. Wherever you are, whatever thoughts might be racing through your mind, light is available. It might be just around the corner.

Table of Contents

Introduction

CANDLES IN THE SNOW

Kristin Procter, Snow and Bones

Maria Jerinic, My Anti-Vegas

Alaina Isbouts, The First Snow

Amanda Nevada DeMel, Ice Petal Flowers

HIDDEN LIGHT IN FAMOUS EVENTS

World Trade Center Attack, New York, 11 September 2001

Erik Pihel, Toward Light

Murder of James Foley, Raqqa, 19 August 2014

Emily Skelding, Long Distance Loss

Mexico City Earthquake, Mexico City, 19 September 2017

Ligia de Wit, The Heart of the City

Northern California Wildfires, Sonoma, 8 October 2017

Fran Braga Meininger, As the World We Knew Burned

THE WONDER OF THE ORDINARY

Toti O'Brien, Beautiful Bones

Marcy Darin, Ode to an Expressway Egret

Laura Valdez-Pagliaro, Two but Not Two

Celeste Snowber, Gull Woman

Wes Choc, Fore or Aft?

UNTETHERED

Beth Rosenberg, Untethered