A list of beautiful things #18

the sun will make a space for you

“In the End,” Elizabeth Shull, 2022

• Fall mist.

• Wouldn’t these be terrific as magnets or paperweights?

• ”If you move soft enough through the wind or woods, they say the sun will make a space for you.” On moving gently.

• "We often expect progress to be linear … It is not until much later that the full value of previous efforts is revealed." Great chart to keep in mind when you’re trying to get better at something.

• A comic about when everything just clicks into place.

• The key to success, according to James Baldwin

• “Erik Satie never used to open the letters he received, but he always answered them.” On the essence of dialogue.

• “Animals do suffer pain, loss and joy … the animal world is not just there for our consumption and pleasure.” Analyzing August Friedrich Albrecht Schenck’s breathtaking oil painting “Anguish,” (1878), one of the most popular artworks at the National Gallery of Victoria.

• Brian Eno on the purpose of art: “Culture — art, if you like — has an important set of functions in preparing us for the future.” It gives us a sense of what the possible might feel like.

• I’m such a sucker for these Christmas ads.

• Good lord this is sexy.

Some little things from me:

• I talk to Christopher Rivas, actor and host behind the podcast Brown Enough, about the hierarchy of Asians, the infamous “What are you?” question and what it was like to grow up in a predominantly Asian community in Southern California.

• I talk to Andy J. Pizza of the Creative Pep Talk podcast about burnout, how to projects done within strict time constraints and the challenges of writing memoir.

• How to use your old diaries as inspiration for newer works.

• Signed copies of It Won’t Always Be Like This are back in stock at my neighborhood bookstore in Nashville, Novelette. Give it to someone as a gift this holiday season!