With the world burning down around us, it seems especially important to find the pockets of good in our days. Here are three beautiful things from my past week:

1. Rudi’s mom and her house seem to have weathered the 5.7 magnitude earthquake that hit Salt Lake City earlier this week and its aftershocks relatively unscathed.

2. While more and more places are closed here in D.C., we are not yet on lockdown the way they are now in California. At midday I walked around the block and stopped at the bank to stock up on quarters for the washing machine. And we’ve been ending each evening up at the park, where we sit until we hear “Taps” wafting through the neighborhood from the Naval Observatory. Lots of other neighbors are doing the same thing, but while the dogs refuse to keep their distance, the people are relatively good about engaging in the social distancing that’s been prescribed to us all. (Rudi and I are hanging out in the gated section of the park, where the dogs aren’t supposed to be, just to be super diligent.)

3. The Vernal Equinox occurred just before midnight our time this evening, which means, despite everything, spring has arrived.

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

Three beautiful things from what has been a remarkably anxious week:

1. There are flowers everywhere.

2. As I was walking back from the local watering hole this evening, I passed a family on the main drag just as an ambulance went by. The little boy was so full of joyful excitement, that he imitated the siren and flashing lights with his whole body, running back to tell his father who was a few feet behind that he had just missed this tremendous vehicle.

3. Rudi and I went to two movies — Emma and My Spy — on back to back nights this week and enjoyed both quite a bit.

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. An earlier growing season in Florida means I can bring fresh strawberries home as a souvenir.

2. We got a chance to see a preview of The Way Back, Ben Affleck’s latest picture, this week. In it, Affleck plays an alcoholic construction worker and former high school basketball star, whose priest asks him to coach their school team. It’s not perfect, but it was both heartfelt and remarkably well acted. Recommended.

3. The beach. Always the beach.

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. The bookstore I visited in Phoenix had a fireplace.

2. My volleyball team is signing up for a new season, and one of my teammates has been taking care of the details via email. The teasing that filled the messages was that of close friends. I love them so much.

3. Corey’s joy at having me home.

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. I may have mentioned my birthday was last Friday and that I went home and that my mother brought out a cake. And then another cake that she’d made. Two seemed decadent enough, but then the next day there was a third cake. Three cakes!!! The last was a jelly roll style Mum made with vanilla cake and strawberry frosting enrobed in chocolate. Isn’t it gorgeous? I’m definitely going to turn 46 more often if there are this many cakes involved!

2. My alumni association sends Valentine’s Day postcards to couples who met during college. It always makes me extra excited to see it arrive in the mail.

3. We lost at volleyball this week, which doesn’t naturally seem like a beautiful thing. But our teams were well matched, the games were tight, we played well, and the score could have gone either way. It felt great to walk away after an hour knowing we’d left everything on the court.

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

It’s Thursday, which means it’s time once again to reflect back on three beautiful things from my past week:

1. A return of cold weather means that my birthday eve sundae doesn’t melt as I eat it on my walk home.

2. Rudi and I won’t get to spend much of my birthday together, so we went out to supper to celebrate at our favorite D.C. pizzeria two days early instead. We’ll do Valentine’s Day next week.

3. In Connecticut, where I grew up, “April showers bring May flowers.” But here in D.C., apparently February showers bring February flowers.

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