Featuring poetry and prose, Capsule Stories Spring 2022 Edition explores the theme Into the Light. Read bright and sunny writings that shine a light on growth and new possibilities after a long, dark winter. These stories and poems tell of leaving bad relationships, of making a life for yourself that feels fresh and exciting and adventurous, of casting off the shadows and uncovering a piece of yourself long forgotten, of letting the sunlight dance on your skin. Capsule Stories Spring 2022 Edition: Into the Light is the perfect book to read on a park bench on a sun-drenched day this spring.

Into the Light

For the first time in months, rays of sun fall through the window in the afternoon and land on your arms, warming you as you type on your keyboard. You look up to find the gray winter sky has been replaced with a hopeful blue, no clouds. Birdsong floats on the air. On a whim, you decide to go outside.

You find an empty bench in the park and sit, pull out the book you brought, and start reading. The sun envelops you, and suddenly it's too warm for your jacket. Moms with strollers and couples holding hands stroll past; from somewhere behind you, a boombox plays a song you almost recognize. You meet eyes with a guy sitting at a picnic table with a sketchbook, hand sweeping across the page. How can he even begin to capture the beauty of this day-the crocuses rising from the ground, the stained glass of an art installation coating the concrete in color, the earnestness of the trees trying on their green?

Suddenly, you feel elated. Lighter. You look around furtively before slipping off your shoes and setting your feet down into the grass for the first time since last summer. The earth squishes beneath your toes, so alive. The sun shines on your face and you know deep down that it will all be okay.