Love Is All Around — Everyday — In 'Rookie On Love'

On a starless night, Maria Popova remembers walking down a back road with her friend, Amanda, who had her newborn son strapped to her chest. Mourning the loss of a longtime relationship, Popova describes the darkness being so thick that "each stride seemed to slice the air apart." And then they came to a clearing that stunned her — in the middle of the woods, a glow-worm constellation. "The most remarkable thing, the most poetic thing," she writes, "was that they didn't glow to delight us onlookers — they glowed to find one another in the dark."

Popova's essay, "Radiance," is just one of many in the new anthology , edited by Tavi's "How To Deal With Rejection" and 's "You First." Mock writes about an unrequited crush on a neighborhood boy that led her to write unsent love letters, which eventually became journals, which was the beginning of her writing career. Henderson's essay celebrates setting boundaries, cultivating emotional fortitude, and going with your gut feeling.