I haven’t quite made up my mind if I’ll give you another Three Beautiful Things later from my own life, but right now everyone else’s lives have so much wonderful news that it can’t help but bump mine into secondary consideration:

1. Rebs’ second surgery is such a success and her recovery so good that some of the nurses think she hasn’t had it yet.

2. BW has been named Teacher of the Year for her school. She has had an amazing year, and this is a well-deserved feather in her cap. This honor also puts her in the running for the statewide honor, which, personally, I think they should also give to her.

3. Shelley finally has word that she’s been accepted into med school. Her path has not been without its bumps, and a lesser woman might have turned around or sat down and wept. I think this bodes well for her being a terrific doctor that any patient would be proud to have tend to them.

It’s late and I want to go to bed, so I write quickly of three beautiful things from the past week:

1. I pedal to and from work several times a week in the nice weather. I am mostly riding in my top set of gears, even on the little inclines from downtown to Dupont Circle.

2. I lie on the bed with my arms in a semi-circle over my head. Jeremiah curls up in the arc they form and purrs contentedly.

3. Amani sends an email announcing her engagement. She stops by a few evenings later to show me the ring Marcus has given her. I’m delighted for the two of them, particularly since I remember the weekend they met.

Howdy! It’s Thursday, I’ve had back-to-back evenings out with the girls, and it’s time to tell you about three beautiful things from the past week:

1. There are several times a year when I get to toast multiple people at a time. This eight-day period, though, tops the list. Sunday merited Mother’s Day phone calls to Mum, Gramma, and Jenny. And four times this week, I get to spend time thinking about dear friends — Eri on Sunday, Jenn yesterday, Kim today, and Rudi on Saturday. Thanks to them for having birthdays make this week an especially festive one.

2. There’s something about a perfectly blue skied Sunday that practically demands a road trip. Sarah agreed to play navigator and we headed north to Hyattsville in search of some yarn. The company was merry, the traffic light, and the tunes up-tempo, so I don’t think you could ask for a nicer way to spend an afternoon. Certainly, I couldn’t, except to note that the shopping also was a success.

3. Last night after getting home late from dinner and a movie, I decide to make dessert. I have whipping cream and rhubarb that needs using, so concocted a lovely pink fool. It was delicious, although next time I will use less orange juice when I poach the fruit.

As Clare pointed out in last week’s comments, I have been blogging three beautiful things each Thursday (and on the occasional off day, as well) for more than four years now. If you look through the TBT archives, that gives us 24 pages totalling 232 posts on beautiful things. Even not accounting for the posts where I had seen so much loveliness it spilled past three items, that still gives us roughly 700 small moments of beauty noted since 2005.

Clare herself will mark the fifth anniversary of her blog, Three Beautiful Things, on May 18. She records three pleasurable moments every day and is narrowing in on 5,500 beautiful recordings over the course of her tenure. Clare, I salute you!

I write this introduction in part because it’s been a rough week. Work has been hard. Personalities have conflicted. It seems like the sun may never come out again. And yesterday, a student at Wesleyan, where I worked for seven years and the source of my master’s degree, was murdered by a stalker a block from where I used to live. It’s weeks like these when beauty seems secondary to hatefulness and ugliness and malaise. Yet that’s probably when it’s most important for me to note down that life is not without hope and that the rain leads (eventually) to rebirth.

1. At the ballpark, a horde of teenagers come rushing toward me on the concourse. They are skipping. And singing.

2. A woman and her young son sit on the bus. The baby is sucking his pacifier, his head on mom’s shoulder. His hand reaches toward her cheek and gently caresses it.

3. Susan and I head downtown to meet up with Michael and Julia. We sit by the fountain for a while, watching a duck make a water landing (as opposed to using the duck ramp on the far side of the pool). Then we head up to the tea shop and sit outside and drink warm beverages and eat cookies and talk. It rains a bit off and on, but it doesn’t matter.

Three beautiful things from the past week:

1. “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.”

2. “Jeeves Saves the Cow-Creamer” — Sometimes you just need a little Wodehouse, as performed by Fry and Laurie.

3. I finish listening to the final chapter of The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde with CraftLit. Heather has introduced me to literature that I wouldn’t otherwise have tried, such as the Stevenson and Frankenstein, that I’ve quite enjoyed hearing.

Sorry this is a bit late, but we had a late dinner and I fell asleep on the couch. Three beautiful things from the past week:

1. Tuesday was Ben and Jerry’s Free Cone Day. Because of a late shower, the line was short, the ice cream flavors were still plentiful, and I walked away with a coconut and chocolate chip cone.

2. Two packages arrive the same day. One contains lovely, soft green yarn from Mini, a pettable prize for participating in her contest earlier this month. The other carries two cds from Dad — the first, a compilation of songs from Peter, Paul, and Mary; the second, songs from 1963. Rudi and I spin up the latter disc blindly to try and guess who sings each song. We fail miserably, but enjoy guessing … and singing along.

3. What I mistook for decorative driftwood on a second floor balcony turns out to be a living stalk that can be traced down to the front garden. This week, the first blooms of wisteria hang from it.