“And do you know, do you know that mankind can live without the Englishman, it can live without Germany, it can live only too well without the Russian man, it can live without science, without bread, and it only cannot live without beauty.”

from Demons by Fyodor Dostoevsky

I've been noticing so much beauty in my life lately. Probably thanks to warmer days, as well as my current state of creative flow. When I'm not spending so much time angsting over what I am or am not writing, there's much more time to experience the world around me.

Here is a current list of things I've been experiencing lately:

Reading

• Empire of the Summer Moon by S.C. Gwynne (the current pick for the book club that I'm in)
• The Creative Act by Rick Rubin (again)
• Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
• Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte (again again again again)
• Unmasking for Life by Devon Price
• Art & Fear by David Bayles
• How to Read a Poem by Terry Eagleton (again)

Watching

• Gutenberg! The Musical!
• Hamnet
• Hoppers
• Wuthering Heights
• Veep, Season 3
• Project Hail Mary
• Working, A Musical
• Legally Blonde, The Musical (one of my daughters played Margot)

Playing

• Baba Is You
• Mudborne
• to a T (also singing along to this amazing song)
• Slime Rancher 2

Adventuring

• Climbing a mountain twice a week with my friends (we've been doing this since last June)

Making

• The final Path of Acceptance in The Self-Taught Life
• A more organized closet

Listening

• The Parker Quartet performing Philip Glass' String Quartet No. 5 live through our local chamber organization
• Cooking music (Play "That's Life" by Frank Sinatra to start and let Spotify do the rest)

Eating

• Bacon & egg biscuits with thick pan-fried bacon (fried slowly over medium heat; flipped often until crispy) and Cappelli buttermilk biscuits (unbelievably good despite being GF; my partner has celiac)
• Rishia Zimmern's chicken with shallots
• Roasted sweet potatoes (so easy, so good, pairs well with above!)

Participating

• All the spring breaks of 5 kids happening during 3 different consecutive weeks
• The Catherine Project seminar on Gogol's "The Overcoat"

Noticing

• All the flowering trees, especially the pear tree blossoms floating everywhere like in Animal Crossing
• My allergy medication suddenly needing backup

Thinking

• About the difference between empathy and compassion, and how to not feel deeply every bad thing
• About how grateful I am for creative flow, when it happens (it's happening!)

Any of these things you're experiencing, too? Anything I should know about? I would love to hear.

Happy Tuesday,

Sarah Avenir