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