Posted on by barbaramonier

Summer Solstice

Today I have been working on a section of the new novel that revolves around a baby’s birth, and it has reminded me of the miracle that every new start, every fresh possibility holds.  In honor or this, and of the upcoming longest day of the year, I am posting this section from my book, “You, in Your Green Shirt.”

And, by the way, it turns out that manipulating photographs is an EXCELLENT way to procrastinate; good visuals make for more interesting blogs, after all.

“When I return home after I run, when I am drenched, soaked in sweat, dripping down the sides of my face and stinging my eyes, when I am barely able to peel off the shorts, the socks, the sports bra that are bonded with my skin, when I am fully naked, I tiptoe into Kate’s room and stand in front of the only full-length mirror in the house.  I look at myself. 

I’m not sure why I do this, what I’m looking for. 

I suppose I look for changes.  I try to know myself.  I consider the fact that the next person, that all the next people, who kisses and fondles the breasts that I see in the mirror, this person will not be kissing the breasts that nursed his babies, that squirted him in the shower when the baby cried out from his crib.  He will see the slight puckering of extra skin along the very tops of my inner thighs as just that, extra skin, and not as a remembrance of the births of his own two children.

Yesterday was the summer solstice, the longest day of the year.  The first bird lets out a few tentative notes at around four a.m. now, and the dogs are up by 5:15.  Our routine is the same every single morning, but they are bursting with desire to get out and see it again, to note and rejoice in every single infinitesimally minute change from the day before. 

The world is beautiful at this hour.  Staggeringly beautiful.  Ever day it is brand new.  It is  millions and millions of years old, too, aeons old.  But in its dew-drenched sparkling magnificence, it is full of promise, of all possible promises.  Brand new.  Again.”

3 Replies to “Summer Solstice”

  1. barbaramonier – Barbara Monier has been writing since the earliest days when she composed in crayon on paper with extremely wide lines. She studied writing at Yale University and the University of Michigan. While at Michigan, she received the Avery and Jule Hopwood Prize. It was the highest prize awarded that year, and the first in Michigan's history for a piece written directly for the screen. She has four published novels: YOU, IN YOUR GREEN SHIRT and A LITTLE BIRDIE TOLD ME, and with Amika Press, PUSHING THE RIVER and THE ROCKY ORCHARD. Her fifth novel, THE READING, will release in October 2022.
    barbaramonier says:

    Reblogged this on barbaramonier.

    Reply
  2. Jan Stone – That toddlin\' town – I'm an essayist, blogger and recovering PR executive who is a master in resilience. I've endured a brain aneurysm, loss of loved ones and a head-on collision—and lived to tell the tales. My writing has appeared at venues including More magazine and The Chicago Tribune. I blog at Elect2Care & JanStoneWritesOn and was an invited blogger at a national conference on women’s economic and political issues. A recipient of multiple residencies from the Ragdale Foundation, most recently I was working through a selective two-year certificate program in the non-fiction genre at the University of Chicago’s Writer’s Studio. I'm also an alumnus​ of The Op-Ed Project, an innovative national program that scouts and trains women and other under-represented experts to submit works of thought leadership to media gatekeepers across all platforms. My essays explore the threads linking trauma and fear to empathy and resilience. My op-eds examine how a culture of courage, connection, compassion and communication has been supplanted by one of entitlement, intolerance and inequity. In a previous life, I've worked at some of the world’s top advertising and public relations agencies including Leo Burnett, Edelman, ComBlu and Bozell Worldwide, where I mastered the art of helping clients strategically achieve their objectives while managing the crises inherent in an imperfect world. I earned corporate cred as Manager of Marketing & Communications at Bell + Howell. I live on the beach in Chicago, where I anxiously await watching the Chicago Cubs win.
    janswrite says:

    Wow you make this look easy Barbara. I think a mutual friend grossly overrates me compared to your talent here. Look forward to following your adventures.

    Reply
    1. barbaramonier – Barbara Monier has been writing since the earliest days when she composed in crayon on paper with extremely wide lines. She studied writing at Yale University and the University of Michigan. While at Michigan, she received the Avery and Jule Hopwood Prize. It was the highest prize awarded that year, and the first in Michigan's history for a piece written directly for the screen. She has four published novels: YOU, IN YOUR GREEN SHIRT and A LITTLE BIRDIE TOLD ME, and with Amika Press, PUSHING THE RIVER and THE ROCKY ORCHARD. Her fifth novel, THE READING, will release in October 2022.
      barbaramonier says:

      Thanks SO much!

      Reply

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