Oh hey, my name is Levi.

I'm glad the weather is finally starting to turn and it really feels like Spring. We've had a run of warm days and nights this last week and all my transplants and seedlings are starting to take off. I love all the potential of this time of year.

Here's what I've got that's either already planted or ready to.

• 10 pepper plants
• 13 tomato
• 3 kale
• 2 rows of beets (~ 8-12 beets)
• 3 swiss chard
• 4 cilantro
• 3 thyme
• 2 oregano
• 4 basil
• 2 dill
• 10 lettuce
• 5 arugula
• 3 purple broccoli
• 3 marigold
• 2 nasturtiums
• 4 fennel
• lots of radish

I’m consistently inspired by the work of Corita Kent. I love this quote. We are living through a slow-moving, totally avoidable tragedy. Any constructive acts we can muster are defiance.

Doing and making are acts of hope.

The Corita Art Center Instagram account is definitely worth a follow.

I read this article by Dan Mall last week that really nails why it's important to not dwell in the creation phase of a project because it's easier to revise and improve once you get the initial ideas on paper.

There are designers that are comfortable creating something from nothing. Others excel at revising or redesigning. I think both are important and I often wonder which mode I should focus energy on.

We traveled last week for first time this year. It was a quick trip down to Chattanooga to spend some time with my partner’s sister, brother-in-law, and our niece. We had a great time out hiking in the mountains, and eating some of the best chicken wings I’ve ever had.

Before heading back to Chattanooga, my brother-in-law suggested we stop at Howard Finster’s Paradise Garden in nearby Summerville, Georgia. Finster was a fascinating and prolific artist who found some success in the art world later in life after claiming to receive a message from God in 1976 to create 5000 "sacred works" at the age of 59. He ended up going on to produce nearly 47,000 works of art before his death in 2001!

I happened to catch five minutes of a documentary that they play on a loop during the tour of the property. In the documentary Kieth Haring visited the property late in his life after developing a relationship with Finster. There is even a piece of Haring's own work on the property today (pictured below), but I'm not exactly sure how that came to be. REM also shot one of their music videos here in the too!

Here are some random photos I shot on my phone during our visit. I'm horrible at taking photos. I should remember to try and do a better job snapping photos for posts like this in the future. This place is definitely worth a detour if you find yourself traveling through north Georgia!

I turn 40 tomorrow and pandemic life continues. My immediate family and I all fall within the range of people who have no idea when they'll be able to get vaccinated. I'm doing my best to show up to work every day and pretend to be productive. It's all exhausting.

My partner and I both turned 40 during the pandemic. We did our best to celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary too. It was July 31, 2020, so it happened to fall right at the start of the major second wave of COVID-19 infections here in the US. I don't remember that day or what we did at all. Probably mostly the same thing we did July 30. Nothing, really.

My son had his 13th birthday last March. Another big milestone come and gone without being able to celebrate. No sleepovers with his friends, or even a meal out at his favorite restaurant. He turns 14 later this month. It will be the second pandemic birthday of his teenage years.

We've experienced tragedy too. Not really COVID-related tragedy, but the normal everyday kind of tragedy that everyone experiences in "normal" times. We lost a beloved family pet Rocky in a horrific accident. I held him as in my arms as he died, and it's a trauma that will be with me forever. We've had to watch from far away as close friends and family members suffered through extreme and deadly illnesses. No hospital or home visits because of the other extreme and deadly illness floating in the air all around us.

What I keep thinking about is how compressed the difference between highs and lows are through all of this. The highest highs, like birthdays and anniversaries, don't really seem to feel that different from everyday stuff, but the lows, they seem to last forever and can be debilitating. I hope you're all hanging in there. ✌️