Summer Solstice

Longest day of the year. My absolute favorite day. (Next to fourth of July)
I can recount so many of these evenings when the sun lingers just above the horizon at 8:30... 8:45... Nine. It is always with great joy that I realize I have just celebrated summer solstice in a hotel room in Nice, France. On the sled hill with Melissa (and Gigi). Driving hand in hand up and over hills on the north side of town. Sipping a bubble tea in a Thai restaurant after an afternoon of lazy reading by the beach with Elizabeth. And then this year.

The intensity of the sun setting behind us sets our skin aglow against the dark blue wavering Lake Michigan. I watch my niece's long, thin nine-year-old legs- almost as milky white as mine- jumping over the shallow waves chasing after her mother. Rachel (my sister-in-law) is trotting as we all do when we run in water- with our elbows bent, hands near our shoulders, and our wrists waving. Broad smiles. Ruthless giggles. Maye with bright eyes and long wet lashes peering out over freckles. Rachel tries to escape the cool body of her daughter who purposely tries to press against Rachel's bare back to send shivers down her arms. It works. Half hugs- half torturous coolness. And then she is dunked. Out of nowhere Teo leaps out from another rolling wave. Emerges like a merman or a starfish or a whale. A gift from the lake. There is a splash fest and then it is quiet. We realize the sun is still so very high and it is 7:30. It is my absolute favorite day. (Next to fourth of July)