Unquiet
Things

Here’s a hymn to welcome in the day
Heralding a summer’s early sway…

I’d been wearing Origins Ginger Essence for a decade of summers before I finally wrote about it in 2021:

“…like waking up on the first day of summer vacation and launching yourself out of bed with a whoop and a holler into the magnificence of a beautiful cloudless day, a sky so blue you feel you’re staring eternity in the eye, and eternity is having a pretty great day, too. The first day of knowing you’ve got two and a half months ahead of you where you have zero obligations and no one is making any demands of your time. As adults, we probably haven’t experienced that complete and utter and glorious freedom in a long time, and this bright, effervescent, zingy scent of spicy fresh-chopped ginger, and aromatic tangy citrus peels (and a nearby saucepan of simple syrup, just outside our peripheral vision) is as close as we might get to those storybook early summer holiday feels. See also all the lyrics from The Decemberists song June Hymn. “A panoply of song” is exactly how I’d describe this fragrance.”

I guess what I never included in that feel-good word salad is the shadow side of this bright, effervescent scent. There’s another story woven into this fragrance—one about loneliness, complicated relationships, and the particular kind of hope you conjure when you’re settling for far less than you deserve.

Read the full story over at my Patreon today, where I explore how this joyful summer scent became intertwined with one of the most emotionally complex periods of my life. This post is available to all Patreon members, including those on the free tier—no payment required, just a quick sign-up to join the community.

Patreon support is one of the few ways I actually earn money for my writing. I’ve never monetized this blog and never will, and while I’ve published books, the reality is that small advances and piddly royalties mean I’m never escaping my day job—my last book came out nearly two years ago and still hasn’t earned out its advance. If you’ve ever found value in my words, whether here or anywhere else, Patreon is the most direct way to support the (often schmaltzy, mostly ridiculous) writing that matters to you.