The Plague of Doves

I am waiting for the publication of Louise Erdrich's new novel, The Plague of Doves. I found a short story she'd written for The New Yorker by the same title. It's available online, here.

Jake

This is Gavin and Jessica's dog, Jake. Isn't he cute? I smile every time I look at him.

Blessings

Novelist William Vollman wrote that "the most important and enjoyable thing in life is doing something that's a complicated, tricky problem for you that you don't know how to solve."

Life is a vast and intricate conspiracy designed to keep us well supplied with blessings: interesting surprises, unexpected challenges, gifts we hardly know what to do with, conundrums that force us to get smarter.

I have many blessings.

Red Winged Blackbirds

It must be spring. The red-winged blackbirds are back.

My List

I have a list of 100 things I want to do before I die. The list always stays at 100 because when I do manage to do one of the things on the list I add another.

I've been admiring the small green shoots of leaves on the trees as I walk from the parking lot to the library and thinking about one of those things on the list. I want to learn how to sketch so that I can capture one of the small branches with the green at the tips. A thin green watercolor would work well for the tiny, unfurling leaves, I think.