And yet the azaleas bloom

My street is showing out this week. It's azalea season.

Hey y'all!

I'm running late this week because I was out of town this weekend, and didn't get home until near midnight on Sunday. That, plus daylight saving time nearly did me in, on top of the circumstances. I had a backlog of work waiting for me when I got to my desk, and in the end, I was just beat.

But I'm back in the saddle and on the wagon and any number of other metaphors, and so I am sitting at my desk, writing to you, my patient readers.

It's been a dry winter here, and unseasonably warm. The high today is 81. My daffodils did almost nothing. But, I'm walking regularly, I'm listening to audiobooks, and I'm being productive when I can be, so all my depression deflector shields are in place.

And yet.

It's all so… much.

Bombs drop and babies die and brown people are crammed into cages and inflation is soaring and The Epstein files and people are being shot in the streets.

I told myself I wasn't going to make a list, because the problem with such a list is when to stop, and I already predict someone will write I was not worried enough about the pollinator crisis to mention it. So, yes, the butterflies and the bees, too.

And the thing I keep coming back to, the thing I told a friend this morning while on my walk, in fact, is that while all of that is true, the azaleas on my street are in bloom. And the warmth from the sun cracks open the leaf buds on my fig tree. And the birds sang this morning, letting each other know they had survived.

It's not enough—the news media has better funding and a satellite network on their side—but it's not nothing. And based on my survival rate to date, it might be enough.

Five Beautiful Things

The world is both burning & blooming
by Karen Salmansohn

You get the bad news
and the sunrise in the same day.
You cry over the headlines,
then you laugh at a baby
wearing a hat shaped like a bear.
This is the dual citizenship
of being alive.
Rage and reverence,
Grief and grace.
You are allowed to feel both.
You are allowed to scream,
& still notice how good the soup is.
You don’t have to choose.
Let it all in.

NASA astronaut Loral O'Hara took a bunch of photos of the earth from overhead. They were stitched together by Sean Doran into this beautiful video of a trip across North America: starting in San Diego and ending in Quebec.

David Altrath is a German photographer whose work I came across earlier this year. I love the way he uses color and space, and his apparent love of architecture. He showed up on my radar because of his photographs of Grundtvig Church in Copenhagen. Imagine a Gothic church building with Danish modern aesthetic.

Because of the rise of AI, I'm generally wary of sharing animal photos these days, unless I trust the source, like a respected, juried contest. These highlights from the 2026 British Wildlife Photography Awards are top notch. The winner was two hares in a fist fight, which the artist called "The Fur Flew", but which I would have had to call "Every Bunny Was Kung Fu Fighting."

Matt Stevens is an illustrator, and a personal project he has been working on is reimagining "good movies as old books". These are fascinating: What would Mission Impossible look like as a paperback from the 70's? Fight Club as a clothbound hardcover from the late 1800's? John Wick as a 60s Pocket Book? I especially love that they are imagined as old, weathered, with creased and shelf wear. God, I love the internet.

In Case You Missed It

The most clicked link last issue was this collection of French prints from the 1960's

I'm still blogging regularly. I'm not sure if I will always post links here, but it seems like the most logical way to do it. In any event, since the last issue of LISB, I've posted the following on the blog:

Anti-Ableism – part of my Ask Hugh Anything series.

The Love List- part 2 - In 2024, I made a list of 100 things I love. Here are 50 more.

Ask Hugh anything – In which I solicit questions, which I will answer on the blog.

Why I stay – Given everything I know about the church's ills, why do I stay?

The one about hope. – a parable, or something.

Unfinished Business – a reader reached out, but not before it was too late.

and a new episode went up on the podcast. I should get another one up on Thursday.

LISB relies on word of mouth.

If you like LISB, most likely your friends will too. Please help me reach more readers by sharing the link to this issue with others.

My friend Zack went to Antarctica (!) and sent me this photo of Food Is Love. You can still get your copy here.

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Thank You!

Ideas for links this week came from Jill, Jason Kottke, and Amy White.

If you are still reading, thank you so much! If you want to support this newsletter (or keep me in groceries!), the best way is to become a member, but you can also buy a book, forward this to a friend, or buy me a cup of coffee.

Take care, friends.

And yet the azaleas bloom

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