Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. It’s been a week of Conn friend surprises: Eri and ECN come to town unannounced and invite us to dinner. Erik calls to chat. Jason phones to say he’ll be out here later in the month and could we get together.

2. Monday is a particularly long, exhausting work day, and I don’t find out until after I rise Tuesday morning that India has canceled our 8 a.m. conference call. I decide to celebrate by going into the office a bit late on a gorgeously blue morning and biking down to catch the cherry blossoms before they disappear.

3. It’s raining when we get out of the theater and still when we get home. After Rudi parks the car, we snuggle back into our seats, hold hands, and listen to the rain fall.

What’s been beautiful in your life recently?

I escaped the day with nary a fish taped to my back, but the universe got me back by work keeping me (and a bunch of my coworkers) until nearly 9 p.m. Yikes! I biked home, ate lentils, and promptly dozed off on the unmade bed. But I’m back up to help make the bed, wash the dinner dishes, and write a blog post before heading to sleep for the night.

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. As I biked home tonight, a tourist family crossed a major road where I was stopped at the light. Halfway across the street, the youngest child lost the jacket tied around his waist. When they eventually reach the sidewalk I overhear the mother chastise her daughter, saying that the middle of the street wasn’t the place to laugh, even if she had thought it was her brother’s trousers lying in the intersection. “But if it hadn’t been the middle of the road, it would have been okay to laugh?” the girl dead-panned.

2. While Rudi skis, Jenny and I spend a quiet hour knitting socks and watching a documentary on Zora Neale Hurston on PBS.

3. Sitting in the parking lot before Rudi’s reunion banquet, I see the nearly full moon rising over the eastern mountains just as the sun is setting over the western ones.

What’s been beautiful in your world this week? New family members? First blooms? A dry basement? Share it with us, please!

I’m back in Salt Lake today, sitting at a cafe for a few more minutes before the yarn store opens up. Tonight we’ll have a dinner out with an ailing Jenny before packing up and heading back east tomorrow afternoon.

I’m not sure I’ll get to post tomorrow, but, if not, definitely expect something new Tuesday. In honor of such a beautiful morning spent outside (after a sunny day spent outside yesterday netted me a slightly pink nose for Rudi’s reunion), I offer you three beautiful things from my Friday:

1. A man on a recumbent bike rides in the bike lane with his small black poodle on a leash running alongside.

2. A violet patch next to a walkway to a nondescript cement building acts as a temporary burst of color.

3. A tree along my walk boasts a medallion. A bottlecap has been painted cheery colors and hangs from a bead-bedecked string. Inside, tiny ransom note-style words read, “This is Zen.”

What’s been beautiful in your world recently?

Three beautiful things from the past week:

1. Last week, when leaving the office way too late, I decide the bus/walking will be faster than taking a late-night train. The bus passes me at Farragut Square, but I catch up to it at the K Street light. I knock on the door to see if the driver will let me on, but she shakes her head and points up a block to the next stop. We leave the light at the same time, but the bus arrives far sooner than I do. When I see the bus door close, I slow my trot down, figuring I’d just have to walk the rest of the way. But the driver re-opens the door to signal that she’s stilll waiting for me.

2. Being so far from Rudi’s mom (who has no other relations) means some challenges for us. Yet, her friends care deeply for her and share some of our concerns, so it’s good to know that they’re also looking out for her and at a closer proximity.

3. On Sunday, as I’m driving to pick up Sarah for our yarn excursion, I pass a group of circus clowns walking down the street carrying huge bunches of brightly hued balloons.

Yes, this is a day late, but that’s because yesterday’s workday extended well into the night and after eating a bowl of chili when I got home, I promptly fell into the sleep of the dead on the couch, not to be roused until the first of the early morning news shows was on. So I post belatedly. Three of the many beautiful things from last week:

1. I depart the office just before sunset. Looking west along I Street, I realize I have reached the clearing at precisely the magic moment of a sunset. You know, the one right before the one you usually catch when you think, “Pretty!” Instead I am struck silent by its utter, soul-cleaning magnificence.

2. I think that when I lived in areas where I was surrounded by lawns and green things that I didn’t notice how much growing plants do every night. But here, where we stuff trees into pocket parks and squeeze gardens into the the two feet between building sidewalk, I look with eager eyes. The first daffodil arrived just before the rains, a harbinger of its relations who took advantage of the pre-spring shower to burst forth en masse Monday morning. The next day it was the green shoots on bushes and a camellia flower. Then an early magnolia tree. And yesterday a tulip puckered up and started applying just the hit of bright pink lipstick. I bet it’s out fully this morning when I head to the metro.

3. My cell phone rings with an unrecognized number. When I tell the woman she’s dialed the wrong number, she replies, “Awww, I’m sorry, honey,” before we say goodbye.

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

I haven’t looked forward to a weekend this much in a while, so I’m really glad it’s Thursday today.

Here are three beautiful things from the last week:

1. I left work early on Friday, which meant I walked home from the Metro during daylight. Along the way I passed blooming snowdrops and croci (crocuses?). It absolutely brightened my foul mood to see the yellow and purple and white flowers.

2. My parents made me handcrafted gifts for my birthday. Mum sewed me a cheery apron based on one of hers that I always use and framed a trio of old photos of us, and Dad made me a mix cd that I’ve listened to every day this week.

3. The start of the work week was warm and sunny, so I ate lunch outside. On Monday I sat in front of the White House and on Tuesday I parked myself outside the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery. I forget sometimes exactly how cool it is to live and work in D.C.

What’s been beautiful in your world?