Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. Work gave us Friday off as a staff appreciation day. I’m going to appreciate starting my long weekend by sleeping in tomorrow.

2. I participated in a gift exchange last month, but my Santa fell through. It happens sometimes, and I try not to take it personally. But the swap organizer emailed today to say I shouldn’t despair; she and some other participants were taking over as elves.

3. One of our summer interns wrapped up her time with us this week. Her last act was to send me an email telling me how much she’d learned and enjoyed her internship and how much my hands-on approach to mentoring had been something she’d really appreciated.

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. A few fireflies still blink under a tree in the park.

2. A teammate shows up for our playoff game after telling us he’d have to miss because he still unexpectedly had family in town.

3. While putting up supports for some beans, I accidentally pull out one of the vines. I use my trowel to move some dirt to re-cover its roots and unearth several potatoes. After digging around a bit further, I’ve collected a quart’s worth.

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. Ninety minutes of playing volleyball.

2. A text from a friend whose kids are away at camp.

3. Snuggling back under the covers because I don’t have to get up yet.

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. We have dinner with friends we haven’t seen since before the pandemic began.

2. The laundry machine company fixes the washing machine before I run out of clean clothes.

3. While the reason for it isn’t beautiful (particulate matter from the wildfires across the country), the neon red of the sunset on Monday was stunning.

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. Dozens of dragonflies and damselflies fill the park, glinting in the evening sun. They do acrobatics and catch the breeze and check out what the other park users are up to. It strikes me this could have been the inspiration for the flying key scene in The Chamber of Secrets.

2. Both Black Widow and Leverage: Redemption have offered me the opportunity to revisit characters I’ve enjoyed spending time with over the years.

3. Our volleyball team goes out after the game. It’s good to have time to hang out with together and to get to know some of the new folks.

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. The Bier Baron (formerly the Brickskeller, for those of you with a historic familiarity with D.C.) has reopened. It joins the Fireplace as the most local bars that shuttered completely during the pandemic to resume service in the past month. While I once would have been irritated to walk through the clouds of tobacco and pot smoke outside them both, at this point I greet their crowds like old friends (in my head).

2. My volleyball teammate, Katie, gave me a ride home after our game in rather plothering weather. As I’d biked down and had planned to metro home and I was soaked to the skin, it was a remarkably generous offer. And I was home in half the time either of the other modes of transit would have allowed.

3. A colleague offers me kind words when I need them most this week.

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