Our fifth child was born this afternoon, right here at home. Beatrice Anna (”Trixie”) Gleeson is a perfect creature, in fact the summit of all creation, the very image of God. Just like her brothers and sisters. And her mother.

I have much to tell about the birth, and I planned to write it tonight, but I find that I cannot. I will write tomorrow. Meanwhile, here is the best photo I took today, of Mrs. Gleeson holding our new cherished gift.

By the way, the portrait on Phoebe’s t-shirt is of architect Louis H. Sullivan.

In his 1896 treatise The tall office building artistically considered, Sullivan wrote:

All things in nature have a shape, that is to say, a form, an outward semblance, that tells us what they are, that distinguishes them from ourselves and from each other. — Unfailingly in nature these shapes express the inner life, the native quality, of the animal, tree, bird, fish, that they present to us; they are so characteristic, so recognizable, that we say, simply, it is ‘natural’ it should be so. (…) Unceasingly the essence of things is taking shape in the matter of things, and this unspeakable process we call birth and growth.

Good night; I’ll see you tomorrow.