Today marks 8 years (less a day) of writing weekly three beautiful things posts. With a few others sprinkled in from time to time, this marks the 445th time I’ve recorded things I’ve found beautiful here. I’ve had other features on the blog — sharing music, knitting, cat photos, and book reviews — but none of them have elicited the same dedication as this one. I’d like to think it’s because it’s such a nice way to share word-fashioned snapshots of my life — and that it makes me more mindful of positive things around me.

Thanks, as always, to Clare, who inspired the original post and whose daily meditations continue to be enjoyed so many years later.

Here are three from the past week:

1. John and Nicole pull off a near-perfect wedding with touches that reflect the two of them as individuals and as a couple. There are Chinese containers containing noodly appetizers, lemonade, and local beer; vases of yellow flowers and tea lights bedeck the tables; vegan and meaty food share the menu; and the favors are heart-shaped tea strainers. Nicole’s younger sister became ordained so she could officiate the ceremony, and her words of and for the couple are filled with love and mirth. Nicole trips over her lines, and John can’t take his eyes off her. Toasts are offered. Dancing (and drinking) lasts until late into the night, when the wedding party (and a few of us random stragglers) parade out of the mansion and up the street trailing decorations, cake, and chuppah.

2. Five days later and I’m still finding sparkles on me, making them even more pervasive than beach sand. Glitter may have become part of my DNA. (That would be an awesome genetic modification, by the way.)

3. Giddy glee pours through me until it feels necessary to twirl like an ice skater or Wonder Woman to share some of it with the world. So I put my bag down, make sure no one is close enough for me to run into them, and, spreading my arms wide, gyre until I’m so dizzy I can’t see and laugh until I’m out of breath.

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

This seems like a really good time to look back at three beautiful things from the past week:

1. The soil in the part of the garden that Rudi’s been working on looks like he ran it through a sieve. No fibrous roots or lumps, like I’ve left in my part of the garden.

2. Tulips on my way to work in candy colors.

3. I take a solo spin up to our local indie bookstore for their monthly trivia night and join the team of two strangers from Northern Virginia. We come in fifth (or so), and although I am mildly ashamed that I couldn’t name Herman Melville as the author of Moby Dick (I blanked!), I did correctly identify the cover of The Unbearable Lightness of Being, the author of The Fight Club, Prince’s “When Doves Cry,” the reason for the nickname “The Bean Belt,” and the commonality between a parliament, an exultation, and a murder.

How about you? What beautiful things caught your attention this week?

It’s a glorious spring Thursday in D.C. that began with cherry blossoms, had a farmers market lunch in the middle, and will conclude with our first baseball game of the season. If that’s not enough here are three other beautiful things from my past week:

1. A hibiscus-mint iced tea after biking without a water bottle on a 90-degree day.

2. New flip flops for the first day of sandal weather and a new cherry red dress for the first Nats game.

3. Scrubbing the dirt from my fingernails and hands after hours of working at the garden.

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

It’s been an eventful week, with Rudi returning home from Salt Lake, several stressful work-related issues, and my dad being in the hospital (he’s recuperating nicely, and we all hope he’ll be cleared to head home tomorrow). Kind of feels like a month has passed since Sunday, honestly. But there have been beautiful things in it, too, and these are three of them:

1. Rudi and I scoot out to see Quartet, a gentle, genteel film about a retirement home for aging British musicians, directed by Dustin Hoffman. The acting is superb, the varied musical interludes enjoyable, and the scenery sublime. I couldn’t ask for a nicer 100-minute escape.

2. Last fall when they cleared the area of trash, the city (or WMATA, I don’t know whose jurisdiction such things fall under) must have stirred up the terraced plots of dirt interspersed along the Dupont Circle north escalator and planted things in them. (I’m pretty sure they’ve only grown stringy grass or trash during the previous 10 springs we’ve lived here.) This week my commute to work has included the cheery nodding of daffodils.

3. Knowing that my mother would be stressed about my dad’s health and being away from my grandmother (who is at home, but still a bit fragile) and that Rudi and I had just returned from an extended trip of dealing with his mom’s health woes in Salt Lake, my brother jumped into the fray and headed east for a few days. I would have gone north and my mother would have coped just fine if neither of us had been around, but I think we were all grateful that Josh stepped in as he did. And it reminded me that he’s grown up into a good man (sometimes you might forget that when your kid brother lives 3,000 miles away and you see him only once a year; in my head he’s still 14 or 17).

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. Returning home after a fortnight away has meant especially affectionate cats. Posey has been a little guarded in her joy; after all, her boy has not yet come back. But Corey and Jeremiah feel that if I’m sitting or lying down, I should be weighted by at least one purring, drooling cat body, if not two, in case I get the idea to depart again.

2. At this time of year, a few warm days can make all the difference in the world to the flowering trees. I was pleased to notice that while the magnolias are just starting to flower, the cooler-than-usual weather has kept the cherries in check, which means that Rudi will not miss their peak blooming season.

3. Sarah and I go out to dinner as an excuse to drink Samoa-flavored milkshakes, a March special at a local fast food joint. They are not perfect replicas of my favorite Girl Scout cookie, but they are mighty delicious.

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

A day late, but I couldn’t break into our computer last night and opted to let Rudi sleep instead of waking him up so I could blog.

Three beautiful things from the past week:

1. We get a crew to help us clean. They blow through in five hours what would have taken Rudi and me a week.

2. A friend of Rudi’s mom gives us the key to an apartment. We have access to a shower and a fridge and a washer/dryer and a bed.

3. Rudi’s mom is up and moving with a walker. Her progress over the last week has been impressive.

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