Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. Our friends John and Nicole and their daughter, Juliet, are back in town to visit Nicole’s parents after moving to the west coast a couple years ago, and we’ve been spending our evenings together. Today Juliet and I colored while waiting for our supper to arrive and the adults caught up on each other’s lives.

2. While we were waiting for John and Nicole to get back to their hotel this evening, Rudi and I hung out in a nearby park. An adorable black lab puppy was playing fetch with its owner and a squeaky ball.

3. I brought my happy lights into work this week and then added a bouquet of sunflowers from the farmers market to my desk, which means that everyone comments how bright and cheerful my cubicle is now. (This doesn’t seem like the sort of office culture where they’re going to be excited about themed light strands and desk toys, so I’m trying to build up slowly within the limits of where I think they’re going to have a hard time explaining why I can’t do something.)

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. In a surprise to this Mets fan after such a rocky start to the season, my favorite baseball team wasn’t eliminated from playoff contention until the final Wednesday of the season. (And my second-favorite team, the Nationals, clinched a wild-card spot the night before.)

2. I got to try out my new volleyball sneakers on the court. They did not make me play like Kerri Walsh, but they did make my knees feel way better. (Oh, and my new indoor team seems nice. I joined them at the bar for a while after the game because Rudi was out for the evening.)

3. The heat hasn’t disappeared for good yet, but autumn has arrived. I’m looking forward to crisp weather and changing leaves and knitwear season (although not to earlier darkness).

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. A little girl of about four, wearing a pink bike helmet, races a corgi puppy up a set of stairs in the park. “I won!” she exclaims.

2. My job is near a mid-week farmers market and I have been celebrating by buying raspberries, which are back in season here.

3. Our library got DVDs of The Librarians, so Rudi and I have been able to resume watching the series.

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

Thursdays mean it’s time to reflect back on some of the beautiful things from the week before. Here are three from my last week:

1. People have been so supportive of my new job. Thank you all for your comments here, in person, on Twitter, and on LinkedIn, where tonight I received a sweet message from my favorite college professor.

2. One of my volleyball teammates invited me to her housewarming party.

3. Because I opted to head home for a final weekend before my job started, I missed a goodbye party for some friends who are taking an assignment in London for a year or two. Julia took some time out from packing to meet me on Monday so we could say farewell.

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. I have accepted a job offer and start next week. The work is worthwhile, the new colleagues seem nice, and the title and salary are a step up from my last job. I am nervous and excited and feel slightly twingy in my stomach when I think about it, which I usually take to mean I should do exactly what scares me most in that moment because it’s the right decision.

2. When Rudi and I attended a concert at the start of the summer, we entered to win tickets to a future show — and Rudi won. The show was this evening, Jenny Lewis, with the opening act of The Watson Twins. It was a great show, full of harmonies and a sense of whimsy and a love of music, and I’m so glad we were able to attend.

3. I spent last Saturday afternoon tucked away in the convention center listening to writers talk about their books and processes and other miscellaneous information. I didn’t get to hear everyone on my list, but I did get to hear enough of them to be pleased with the result and I got to check out a couple new-to-me writers as well whose work I’ll be looking for at the library in the near future.

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. Rudi and I make the most of our mutual unemployment today, spending the afternoon at the zoo, checking out a new ice cream shop, and sitting on the patio at a bar I’m fond of.

2. After soliciting advice from many of my friends and outlining a detailed plan with one with expertise, I attempt something new and foreign and terrifying to me — and utterly fail. There are tears in public (although later, not in the moment of failure itself), but words of comfort and congratulations drift in from across the country for having been brave enough to try.

3. I made a new friend back in the spring and we have spent lots of time out together over the past few months. This weekend, she and her husband (and their dog, Molly) invited us over for supper and we spent hours chatting about their upcoming vacation, early computing languages (that was mostly Rudi and her husband), and how job hunting has changed since we were all young.

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