Time and days don’t really exist up here, other than in the form of making doctors’ appointments, which means I have a hard time holding onto Thursdays…

Here are three beautiful things from my past week:

1. The hospital releases my dad after five days this time and lets him do his final treatment as an outpatient, sitting next to my mom for her weekly chemo infusion.

2. Rudi overnights me a package, which includes leftover Halloween candy, more cold-weather clothing (fall in New England means something different than in D.C.), and my new phone, which I’d had sent home instead of to Connecticut. (The battery doesn’t die when you blink! The flashlight works! I can talk to people for an hour and not have to be tethered to a charging cable!)

3. When I went to Northampton the weekend before Halloween, I picked up a bunch of books, including Bishop Takes King, a Hawkeye (Kate Bishop) novel by Ashley Poston. The Hawkeye novel was perfect for the hospital, and rewatching the first episode of her Disney+ series was perfect for the few hours a day I had to myself.

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