Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. A letter arrives from an old friend when I’m feeling blue. He tells me of the man in his life and his new house and his travel plans, and it all seems like a happily ever after ending.

2. One of Rudi’s friends gets married and invites us to the wedding. As part of the entertainment, his dad has built a croquet set and beanbags, and they’ve bought a bocce set. I lose to Rudi twice at beanbags, but we must come pretty close to even at bocce.

3. Karen telephones and we get to catch up for a couple of hours.

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. I pick a full quart of strawberries out of my garden.

2. Sarah and I go to a local farm to pick berries with her sister-in-law and her eldest nephew. Among their animal residents, they have two baby goats who elicit oohs and ahhs from us all.

3. Rudi’s mother’s phone is out and has been for a week. We hear from several concerned friends of hers who aren’t able to reach her, and we’re all glad we can reassure them that it’s nothing more serious. (We are also highly grateful to her friends who tracked her down for us, when we realized something wasn’t right.)

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. I get the chance to watch two movies outdoors this week: Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and Dirty Dancing.

2. Arriving at the farmers market in the final minutes has its perks: the bakery stand where I pick up something for breakfast asks if they can give me some free cookies. Why, yes, you may.

3. I tend not to like to inquire about things and have been known to just let them go, rather than pick up the phone, send the email, or approach a person. This time, though, I finally get up the guts to ask and am now signed up for a class that starts next week.

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

Three beautiful things from the past week:

1. Although my dad broke his pelvis, he managed to do so in a way that will not require surgery, knock on wood.

2. Dinner and milkshakes with my friend Amani.

3. The final episode of The Late Show with David Letterman marked the end of an era in late-night tv. I loved his final few weeks of shows and the tributes from his fellow late night hosts.

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

Three beautiful things from my previous week:

1. Lying in the park, reading books and comic books.

2. Rudi and I get all the seedlings I’ve bought recently planted in the garden.

3. My coworker and I head to the White House-adjacent farmers market for lunch every Thursday, where we both enjoy vegetable tacos from one of the stands. Today, the line is long and I tell her that if she wasn’t there I’d have bailed and found something else. But because she is there, I wait patiently beneath a blue sky, my sweater folded over my bag, soaking in the sun while I wait to place an order for three very tasty tacos.

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. Rudi went to the garden of his own accord to turn soil and then picked me a vaseful of the violets I let run rampant this time of year amidst our strawberry patch (something he normally dislikes doing).

2. A sunny afternoon at the ballpark where the home team won and the star outfielder hit three back-to-back home runs.

3. A couple of my volleyball teammates agreed to go with me to a local cafe for the period between when our game ended and the pick-up game began. We’re talking about playing together again this summer (or next fall when games resume in our current location).

How about you? I’d really like to hear what’s been beautiful in your world this week.