Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you had a wonderful holiday. (Or happy Thursday if you don’t celebrate!)

Beauty and gratitude don’t always go hand in hand, but today they do. Here are three beautiful things from my past week:

1. I spent last Thanksgiving alone, Facetiming with my folks to watch the parade and chatting with Rudi, who was out with his mom, on the phone. I don’t think I’ll ever take spending the holiday with them in person for granted again.

2. My brother called to wish us all a happy holiday. He recently made a major life decision, and he sounded so much more relaxed this time than the last few times I’ve talked with him.

3. The table may not have literally groaned under the weight of so many delicious dishes, but I think I heard it sigh contentedly. Mum has spent the past month preparing a couple dishes a week and freezing them, and the only thing that needed to cook from scratch today was the turkey and Rudi’s carrots and peppers dish. I appreciate how much work went into making the holiday meal (it was after 11 last year when I sat down with just three dishes) and the energy required to do it all.

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

I’m feeling a little blue tonight, so I’m giving us a rare non-Thursday edition of three beautiful things:

1. I passed a woman wearing a hat with a gigantic plume of a feather sticking out of it.

2. An upstairs neighbor removed their laundry from the dryer with twenty minutes to go. I grabbed the thickest items off the drying rack and finished them off with a little heat.

3. There was a shred of pink along the horizon behind the Washington Monument as I was biking home past the Capitol on an otherwise overcast day.

What’s been beautiful in your world lately?

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. Rudi’s early flight was late enough I could go to the yuppie doughnut shop after dropping him off.

2. While at our neighborhood grocery store/bar, we ran into a friend of Rudi’s and ended up closing the place down.

3. I stopped by the local Middle Eastern place hoping for a pre-supper cup of tea to drink while sitting on their patio, since it was an unseasonably warm evening. They apologized that their kebabs were pretty much gone, and when I explained I’d want a vegetarian option anyway, they offered to make me falafel. Dinner without having to cook it myself? Sure! While I waited, they gifted me a piece of baklava and the cup of tea I’d wanted, and once the falafel was cooked, I had two meals’ worth of sandwich, plus four sauces.

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. I had today off, so we headed to Delaware to the beach. Although the forecast predicted cloud cover by mid-afternoon, we had a partly sunny day and a gorgeous sunset to boot. The air and water were both in the 60s, which means that it was perfectly pleasant to wade in the water … in November! For being fully dressed, I got myself very wet!

2. My volleyball teammates reassured me after someone said hurtful things last week (not at our game, but in another sphere of my life). One was downright angry that I’d been mischaracterized.

3. A couple had brought their 10-week old Australian shepherd on an outing to the yuppie grocery store/bar. “He’s getting cranky,” the woman said, as they swaddled him to take him home.

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. We have a party of D.C.-area colleagues at our CEO’s house. It’s so good to see everyone in person after so long (and to meet colleagues for the first time whom I’ve only seen in little boxes).

2. The cider doughnuts from the new-to-us orchard an hour closer than the one Sarah and I usually go to are quite good. I suspect we’ll be back.

3. Rudi is home.

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. My volleyball team played an excellent game.

2. One of Rudi’s dearest friends from college is on the first leg of my flight home. I notice her because she’s wearing a sweatshirt from our alma mater. She comes back to sit in the empty seat next to me for a while.

3. There have been breakthrough COVID infections at the assisted living facility where Rudi’s mom lives. She tested negative, as did I. (Rudi will test when he returns home next week. I figured two flights plus the possible exposure at the facility merited my testing before rejoining my volleyball team at an elementary school, particularly since I wanted to verify my sniffles and sneezing were due to allergies.)

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