During a recent walk to Murray Forest, two carvings on the side of a church caught my attention. One was of a man, the sun behind his head, wings in front, with the epigraph “Courage.” The other was of a woman, same arrangement, with the epigraph “Virtue.” My first thought was that these felt a bit lodge-y, like something you’d see associated with the Freemasons. The building looked like a church but the inscription on the building was Warren Dean Jones Memorial Christian Fellowship Center, and a cornerstone marked 1949.

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Observations: Cut-leaved toothwort White fawnlily Spring beauty Rue anemone Lemon balm American columbo Common cinquefoil Large-leaf water leaf Carolina crane’s-bill Six white-tailed deer Red-bellied woodpecker Bonus: on the walk home I saw a catbird and listened to its complicated song

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I finished a tabletop shelf for all of my work electronics, plus an inset pencil cup. Plenty of flaws and a couple of big mistakes, but I learned a bit more about priming and painting and filling gaps in plywood ends. Now having completed a handful of projects, I have discovered that there is almost always a moment—usually near the end—when I am convinced that this is the crappiest thing ever built by human hands.

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The Tao makes no effort at all yet there is nothing it doesn’t do if a ruler could uphold it the people by themselves would change and changing if their desires stirred he could make them still with simplicity that has no name and stilled by nameless simplicity they would not desire and not desiring be at peace the world would fix itself Taoteching verse 37, translated by Red Pine

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