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?