A postcard from Bermuda: I’m currently looking out my window at the warmest, bluest water, trying to wrap my mind around my impossible smallness on this little strip of volcanic island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. I just finished our Magpie book club pick for the month on the flight over (Orbital by Samantha Harvey — are you reading, too?) and its impression is coloring my vision — it is a meditation on our planet from the standpoint of an international crew of astronauts orbiting the earth — although it doesn’t take much to make me aware of my own insignificance, even at home, in the comfortable contours of our lived-in life. For example, there have been a pair of house sparrows building a nest right outside my studio window for the past few weeks. I haven’t seen the nest itself, but I see the pair of them flying back and forth with twigs and once a piece of something that looked like pillow fill — busy, determined, on this earth to fulfill their nature-given missives, unconcerned with me. Entire universes just outside, beholden to their own laws and desires. So too now: two Bermudan kiskadees have landed on a palm frond in my line of sight. Gorgeous yellow-breasted flycatchers calling one another, claiming the day. And yesterday on the boat we spotted longtails — a rare ocean bird that mates for life, and about half of whose entire population on this earth lives in and around Bermuda in the summer months. Just the thought of these pelagic birds that only come to land to lay eggs and spend the rest of their time surveilling the ocean in gliding companionship with one another astonishes me. Entire universes to discover, and just outside —
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One part of the Orbital book I enjoyed was the periodic interspersing of lists written in the hand of one of the astronauts, Chie — short collections of reassurances, comforting thoughts. I liked the irregularity of her lists: small things mixed with big ones. If you were to convert today into a list, what would be on it?
Things Calling for My Notice Today
Bermudan kiskadees and their disproportionately loud, squawky calls — a big voice for a small body
Bathwater-warm, clear oceanic water
Pink walls
My children, across the ocean right now, and I miss every small thing about them
The endless horizon
The headstrong blue sky
The thought that people live here on this island all the time – disconnected from the rest of the earth but ensconced in their own rhythms, and seemingly happily — proudly — so
Looking right then left (Bermuda is a British Overseas Territory)
The edits my publisher sent to me on the first full draft of my manuscript
Plans for August
What do I need to do for the kids’ new camp on Monday?
My husband and the easy way we fall into and out of a long and unending conversation
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Shopping Break.
+A lot of you have been snapping up these AYR pants the past few days — I mentioned them earlier this week but apparently they sell out each time they are released. Come in three inseam lengths, praise be!
+An icocnic, classic white dress. The fit and quality of this dress is phenomenal. I own in a patterned cotton and a silk dupioni.
+Wore this hat onto the plane (and while in Bermuda) and it is SO chic. I was stopped by three strangers in the airport about it. Has a sort of old-school vibe to it but the colors are so feminine.
+This skirt is in my cart.
+The LR sale is live and really good (30% off applied at checkout) — a great time to snag a new pair of Leonies. These are some of the most comfortable out-of-the-box ballet flats on the planet. Like butter! You will live in these.