There's nothing like killing a plant when you're feeling a little down. 

Notes on Mr. Simon's concert: a list.

In the toughest time, going back to being a beginner can feel like a failure. Really, it's one of the greatest strengths man is capable of.

The idea that happiness is something you should choose is damaging in a lot of ways. Luckily, there's an alternative.

Summer is upon us, and you might deserve some rest. Take it where you can get it; but then get up and get back to work. This world needs you, and you need it right back.

Live every last day like it is a day.

I decided to draw every single bird in North America as my final graduate school project, and it taught me more than I thought possible. 

This is one of the busiest times of the years. Here's a suggestion on how to manage it.

Everyone wants to be liked. There is nothing unique about that, or really wrong with it, either. But I’m beginning to realize that when I come home from a short party more exhausted than I feel after a long run, it’s because I am spending a lot of my energy performing.

It can be alarmingly easy to forget how important it is to find a family.

Some thoughts on what to do with that feeling that you need something more, something else; that something is going to satisfy an itch or a need or a hunger; but nothing ever does. It’s the thinking associated with, “I can’t stop doing this”; or, “Just one more, I swear.” 

The trick actually has little to do with how you distribute your energy, and everything to do with how easily you can accept that you cannot do everything; and with how readily you can be gentle with yourself when it seems everyone else can. I

On spending quite a lot of time with quite a small number of artworks you wouldn't normally see.

We got a new cat.

The most perfect possible bird ushered out this dark year and let me let go into the next one. 

The longest love story of my life, resurrected every Christmas Eve.

Eighth grade was the beginning of the rest of my life.

Jean Baptiste Lucido Johnson Hoar de Galvan: November 2015 - December 2016.

One of our cats collapsed extremely suddenly last night. Things are still up in the air.