Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. Dusting on baby powder after a shower on a steamy morning.

2. Rudi was away for the weekend, so I took myself out on a bike ride and dinner outdoors: a tortilla with local corn and tomatoes, new potatoes and summer squash and horchata at a nearby taqueria, followed by a pot of tea and a blueberry shortcake for dessert next door. I know how to show myself a good time.

3. The blue moon rose orange over the Anacostia, peeking out at Shawn and me from behind a Navy ship.

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. A chubby baby has fallen asleep in its mother’s arms. Its legs and arms waggle beneath her embrace in time with her steps.

2. Neon pink and orange streak through a window of clouds to the west, while pastel pink cotton candy thunderheads pile up to the north.

3. My phone keeps giving me error messages and freezing up, rendering it nearly unusable. Rudi is able to get it working again, clears off some space, and upgrades the operating system. It’s practically like it’s brand new (but still with its cracked screen and familiar apps).

Rudi also fixes my bike, which I messed up when I crashed. (Honestly, it made me feel so much better to discover I’d injured the bicycle as well as myself in the fall. It made it feel like it had been a more legit crash, rather than just falling off.) He gives it a new handlebar and brake lever and adjusts the shifters, so I assume it, too, will work like brand new when I take it out for a spin this weekend.

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

Another belated three beautiful things post because we took yesterday to spend at the beach and got home late and tired.

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. A day spent at the beach includes water in the 70s, air in the 80s, fish sandwiches, ice cream cones, reading, napping, diminishing crowds as the day went on, and a bonfire with free marshmallows to roast.

2. My taped-up wrist feels well enough to play volleyball on the sand courts by the Lincoln Memorial for the first time ever.

3. The community pool, which normally closes at 6 on weekends, stays open until 8 due to a heat wave. It is ten degrees cooler there than anywhere else in the vicinity, so even after we were done swimming, we just hang out on lounge chairs, enjoying some respite.

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. Sunflowers filling a field.

2. A bike messenger pedals past with a bunch of balloons tied to his delivery trailer.

3. Sitting out an afternoon rain shower under a large patio umbrella at a cafe.

What about you? What’s been beautiful in your world this week?

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. I crashed my bicycle over the weekend (entirely my own fault), but was surprisingly lucky in terms of the outcome. It was a cool, damp evening, so I was wearing galoshes, bike gloves, and long sleeves, which cut down on the amount of skin I left on the pavement and increased my slidability. I was wearing my helmet with the sun visor, which bounced off the road instead of my nose or teeth. My right wrist is sprained, but not broken; my aches mostly faded before I had to go back to work Monday; and my scrapes, cuts, and some livid bruises (many of which are in places only Rudi and people at the pool should see from where I hit the brake levers when I tipped over the handlebars) are healing. People in the cars stopped on either side of me shouted immediate offers of assistance from their windows and pedestrians en route to the fireworks proffered water and additional ministrations, as Rudi helped me get off the roadway and onto the sidewalk.

2. While we knew that there would be fireworks nearby during our usual Friday evening picnic, we didn’t realize they’d be practically overhead.

3. My garden plot has a lot of foliage, which attracts insects, both good and bad. Some of the best, though, are the fireflies who greet me like curious fairies when I stop by near dusk. Dozens of them take flight and hover over the pathways, blinking lazily and making sure I’m not doing anything rash.

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

I dozed off contemplating a knitting pattern last night and forgot to hit publish on this post, so, just as we’re observing today (in the U.S.) as July 4th (observed), let’s also consider today as Thursday (observed). Here, then, are three beautiful things from my past week:

1. On Friday morning, the Supreme Court upheld the importance of love, the significance of marriage, and the dignity of everyone to who wants to honor the first with the second by declaring that the Constitution of the United States grants them this entitlement.

2. A Vincent-worthy bouquet on my desk at work:

3. A gallon of delicious blueberries picked in a mere hour. One of my favorite snacks of the year:

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