Finished reading: The Obstacle is the Way by Ryan Holiday 📚

A mediocre book, to be sure. The writing is not good; the book is littered with clichĂ©s; and he expects the reader to be another Lincoln or Churchill. And yet, it was still the right book for me in this season. Embracing obstacles and setbacks—that message struck a chord with me.

I painted this back in 2018; I’m a one-trick pony when it comes to painting.

A fascinating 2018 documentary on Paul Kingsnorth’s changed relationship to the environmentalist movement he once passionately identified with. This is Kingsnorth prior to his conversion to Orthodoxy and relative popularity for his online writing at The Abbey of Misrule, though it is interesting to see certain spiritual ideas and trajectories already percolating in his mind by this point.

My wife and I are finally watching Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds for the first time. (I say “watching” because we’re at the stage of life where we split a viewing over two nights; I might’ve been embarrassed by that earlier in life, but I’ve come to a place of self-acceptance.) It is not what I expected, and I mean that in a rather positive sense. I’m certainly curious to see how things wrap up.

If at all feasible in your situation, don’t use Amazon. That is all.

Harry did not really listen. A warmth was spreading through him that had nothing to do with the sunlight; a tight obstruction in his chest seemed to be dissolving. He knew that Ron and Hermione were more shocked than they were letting on, but the mere fact that they were still there on either side of him, speaking bracing words of comfort, not shrinking from him as though he were contaminated or dangerous, was worth more than he could ever tell them.