Manifesting a writer’s retreat that feels like:
Evergreen canopy, books splattered with water and yellowed with time, the smell of cedar and melting butter in a cast-iron skillet.
A storm coming in across the water, the slap of a screen door, a dog panting at the door step. “At the lake” written in a Bic pen on yellow paper. Wet feet on a warm dock, footprints that disappear as quickly as we deposit them. An unsaid yet obvious agreement between myself and the lake about my own smallness: the spread of sunlight and stretch of epilimnion solemn witnesses to it. In the woods, you are as trivial as the tree ant. I crave this rightsizing. I know a lake — fresh water cradled by trees, time, and rock — can give it to me.
Wine in a juice glass, creased playing cards on the coffee table, that persistent Saturday morning feeling.
I think I am edging my way into a writer’s retreat not so much to write but to slow time, to actually feel it glide through my fingers like lakewater, to not look at the clock and think, “normal day, where have you gone?”
Landon spent most of his summers at his aunt’s lake house, and he said the days stretched on forever. “Lake time,” he called it. Not only because the sun was stirring at 5 and setting at 9 but because they’d segment the day like orange slices: cold-water dips at dawn, mornings on the boat or jet-skis, a standing lunch of corn on the cob and peaches from the neighboring farm, afternoons at the mini-golf course or pinball arcade, late afternoons reading in the hammock or playing games on the porch, sunset at the dock, marshmallows by the fire, stories in the starlight, bedtime wedged in between a quilt and cricketsong. So much held together within the slow peel of 24 hours.
I want that gorgeous deceit, that feeling that life might go on forever.
AN ADIRONACK CHAIR FOR $75 // CUPS // A PERFECT ROLLNECK SWEATER TO THROW ON OVER PERFECT STRIPED PAJAMAS // BANDANA PRINT BLANKET (USE CODE JEN20) // SCREENLESS DIGITAL CAMERA // PERFECT TOTE (40% OFF) // THE ONLY SHOES FOR THE JOB
POLO SWEATSHIRT // TANK TOPS THAT REMIND ME OF MY YOUTH // PULL-ON STRIPED SHORTS // PULL-ON PANTS // BOAT SHOES (ARITZIA X SPERRY) // VINTAGE LV
My Final Book Event — A Final Invite!!!
Final invitation to my final book tour event, this Thursday, 5/21, at 7 PM — Politics and Prose, Union Market! Please, please join me! A last hurrah :). All details here.
Quelques Choses d’Autre.
+Madewell has some crisp and fun new arrivals: striped jeans (I find their denim to be excellent), bandana print shorts, and a nautical striped hoodie!
+Currently wearing and loving this t-shirt bra. It’s 30% off and insanely comfortable. All of Eby’s bras are beyond perfect. I have it in the blue, which is a tad impractical maybe but it sparks joy each time I put it on.
+Dorsey launched its full turquoise collection — these are pieces they release in the summer and don’t restock until the year following. I absolutely love this bracelet, and like to style mine in a stack of gold bangles and links. The riviere is also bananas. Imagine with a white sundress or button down and nothing else but sun-kissed skin! Reminder that Sahira has a great look for less, and they’ve offered us 20% off with code JEN20. This routinely sells out!
+I will be publishing a second post with all my best early MDW sales in one place this morning! Stay tuned!
This post may contain affiliate links. If you make a purchase through the links above, I may receive compensation.
