Right now, I am standing in the parking garage of my apartment building, having a cigarette, listening to Nick Drake sing Northern Sky. I’m listening to the rain outside, the soft patter of raindrops on the street below. My eyes drift over, and I notice a duck walking, or maybe more accurately, wiggling through the puddles before shaking off the excess water from the rain. I’m listening to the everyday sounds of my neighborhood. The cars passing by, the rain hitting the metal handrails leading up to the three-story garage, and the waterfall across the street, adding to the lush sounds of the rain with its soft, steady, hush-like rhythm. Everything is lush, green, and vibrant. It is a quintessential wet, humid Florida summer day.
The title of this post is My Bella Grace Summer. I have long loved Bella Grace magazine and all its subsequent publications. From the quality of its paper stock to the world of everyday magic Bella Grace inspires us to acknowledge, it has become something I genuinely look forward to. Yesterday, I was lucky enough to bring home three publications: Bella Grace Field Guide to Everyday Magic, Bella Grace Summer 2026, and A Romanticized Life: Bella Grace. As I sat down with my coffee this morning, I began savoring every page, every word, and I’m not nearly finished. These magazines are my summer roadmap, and it is here at Dear Jennie that I will be sharing my thoughts, reflections, and experiences.
Somewhere in that ordinary moment I opened this blog post with, I realized what my Bella Grace Summer means to me. It’s not just about reading, although I now have some amazing titles that I’ve added to my TBR list.
Bella Grace is about the magic of ordinary life.
Standing in the parking garage, as Nick Drake sings Northern Sky, I’m not doing anything at all, but I’m doing something at the same time.
Bella Grace Summer, for me, is solitude. The solitude that is felt within us, even with all the sounds around us. It’s simply noticing.
And what I notice is that the magic, for me, is in all the details. It is the sensory experience. The sound of rain on metal. A duck wandering through puddles. The lush green of a Florida summer after a storm. A favorite song playing at just the right moment.
I believe these ordinary moments are gifts from God. They’re so easy to overlook because they’re ordinary, but perhaps that’s exactly where the wonder lives. The gift of life isn’t always found in the extraordinary. Sometimes it’s found in simply paying attention.
My Bella Grace Summer has only just begun, and I am already looking forward to My Bella Grace Autumn to see how this all unfolds within, and beyond, the pages of Bella Grace.
