Walking home from the library in the rain the other night, I walked closer to the building than usual trying to stay dry and saw this chandelier in an otherwise unremarkable and empty entryway.

Here are three other beautiful things from my past week:

1. We haven’t seen Sam’s son, Max, since he was a baby, so there’s no way he’d remember us, but he warms to us quickly and is soon giggling and seeking shelter in my legs from the “Daddy monster” he wants to chase him in the park. Karen’s children, Marshall and Livia, are older and have seen me in recent memory, but they’re both shy when we arrive. But by the end, they are eagerly elbowing each other out of the way (metaphorically, not literally) to fill in what they perceive to be woeful gaps in my understanding of Minecraft and Pokemon.

2. I first started seeing fireflies about two weeks ago, but in the past week, the numbers have picked up significantly and it seems like everywhere you look at night there’s a slow-blinking bug.

3. At my parents’ house, you can sometimes hear owls loudly calling to one another from quite nearby, and my parents have seen them several times. As I was walking their dog down the driveway on Sunday, a large one flew across our path about fifty yards away and settled high up, but in a clear sightline, in a tree across the street. A few seconds later, a smaller owl also flew in front of us. It all happened so fast that I couldn’t tell if they were mates or parent and child. Later, when we were walking back up the driveway, I could hear them calling to each other in the woods, saying to wait us out.

How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world lately?

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. My volleyball team won its division. (Momentum was in our favor; we got progressively better as the season went on.)

2. We stopped in Princeton on our way north this evening and the easiest spot to use the loo was at the town library. They have a coffee shop and a used bookstore in their library (the former is supposed to be a feature at the new main library in D.C. when it reopens, I believe) and this really cool mosaic wall, “Happy World,” with local items as well as tiles painted by artist Ik-Joong Kang. (Libraries are my new favorite bathroom stop.)

3. Sunday was cool and grey, but I headed to the pool anyway to get in some swimming before the predicted thunderstorms. Only a handful of us had the same idea, which meant that a pool that’s designed to and often does hold more than 100 people had fewer than three dozen. For much of the time I was there, I had the deep end entirely to myself.

How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world lately?

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. I had a work meeting down on the Mall this week. We ended up by Constitution Garden, where there was a mama duck and four ducklings paddling about.

2. Despite their saying only the top three volleyball teams would advance to the playoffs, my league let all four of us in, thanks to two of us being tied. We’ll take it!

3. I don’t like hockey. I do, however, like people who like hockey. And I like seeing our locals get to proud of something on the national stage. And, being a fan of a different sport, I know the dejection of losing and the elation of winning in big games. Thousands and thousands of hockey fans have packed local bars, parks, and streets for watch parties this week and tonight they got to watch their Capitals clinch the Stanley Cup, and I couldn’t be happier for them.

How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world lately?

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. How could this not top the list???

2. As we were standing at the Union Square subway station ticket kiosk trying to figure out how to reload our metro passes, an older woman took the time to walk me through it. Having been that person before, I was unbelievably grateful for her patience with tourists.

3. It has been years since Rudi and I took a trip that didn’t involve visiting my family or his. Lovely as that is, it’s not the same as going someplace where it’s just the two of us the entire time. I hope we plan more such excursions.

How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world lately?

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. Rudi clears the stuff out of the way of my bike and makes sure my tail light has fresh batteries prior to the baseball game we’re due to attend. (Because of the forecast, I hadn’t planned to ride it to the game, which he didn’t know, making it even sweeter.

2. I convinced the two teammates who wanted to hang out after our volleyball game that we should go get ice cream instead of going to the bar. (I had peanut butter cup.)

3. A sun shower drops a tiny bit of rain on an otherwise dry Sunday. I am at a cafe, sitting under an umbrella on the patio, and the rain disappears after only a minute.

How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world lately?

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. Rudi celebrated his 45th birthday on Wednesday. We both took the day off from work and spent the day together, eating out, visiting an art gallery, and dodging raindrops. I made a strawberry shortcake to conclude the day.

2. One of my fellow gardeners was clearing her plot of early crops when I stopped in to plant on Sunday. She stopped by before leaving to ask if I wanted a bouquet of Johnny Jump Ups, since otherwise she was going to have to compost them.

3. I look down at my knitting to realize there is a dropped stitch half a dozen rows down laddering its way away from the needles. I pull out a crochet hook and zig-zag the yarn back up where it belongs. How cool is it to know how to fix a hole like that?!

How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world lately?