Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. Coal, our wee small boy kitten, gained nearly a pound and a half in the two weeks since his previous vet visit. We worked hard to find food he’d eat when he first moved in, but our persistence and Ember’s example of what kitten mealtime should look like is paying off.

2. Julie’s 50th birthday bash included dancing at a bar, delicious cake, and seeing people I hadn’t had a chance to chat with in ages. Everyone had a very good time, including, I’m pretty sure, the birthday girl.

3. New sequels that I’ve been excited to read came off the hold list this week, so I promptly started reading them both. (In the stress around the election and its aftermath, escaping into books has been very appealing.)

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

Three beautiful things from a hard, disappointing week:

1. My heart team won our first championship in five years and our only undefeated season. Not everyone made the game in person, but everyone was there in spirit. (I did not cry, although I was afraid that I would.)

2. The kittens discovered the Roku screensaver this week and spent quite a while chasing the cars that drove across the bottom of our tv screen.

3. We attended a Halloween party hosted by a young couple I play pickup with on Saturdays. It was nice to hear folks talk about how much that community means to them and to spend a while with them when we weren’t all on the court.

How about you? I know the week didn’t hold what most of us wanted, but what moments of beauty were you able to find?

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. I got to spend my mom’s 75th birthday with her and my dad. (This also meant I got to catch the tail end of New England’s foliage season.)

2. A woman was traveling with her 3-month-old daughter and had the middle seat on the airplane. The lady sitting at the window offered her that seat instead, thinking it would be more comfortable. “I remember how it was traveling with little ones.” (Because I was already tucked in across the aisle, I also got to hold the delightful baby while mom was putting her bag up above. Don’t worry — I got the bag down for her at the end of the flight, rather than insisting on holding the baby again.)

3. The team went into our final week of the regular season undefeated, but facing our biggest competition yet — one of the two teams with only one loss. (We didn’t face the other one.) We dropped the first set and were down toward the end of the second. But we stayed calm and scrappy and pulled the game back. And then we decisively won the tiebreaker to enter the playoffs in first place.

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. Two new family members moved into the Burrow this week, a 3-month-old little boy cat and a 4-month-old little girl cat. I’ll share more about them very soon, but know we are in love (even as we are suddenly doing a very big house cleaning since the female kitten, in particular, loves to find all the dusty places under and behind things!).

2. Friends helped me raise nearly a thousand dollars for a suicide prevention walk this past weekend. I can’t begin to say how much their generosity and support mean.

3. We washed our windows this week and the amount of light let back in is noticeable. (Our windows are below street level in a window well, so they get filthy when rain bounces off the ground and hits them.)

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. We spent last weekend in Connecticut with my parents. We did a lot of work around the yard, with a huge assist from Hod and Joanne, family friends who are like an aunt and uncle to my brother and me. We also got to celebrate my dad’s birthday and eat apple crisp and lots of pizza.

2. Rudi’s friend Rachel needed a vet and remembered that I’d said we liked ours. She was much happier with how they treated her and her cats, so I’m glad we were able to connect them.

3. Rudi and I listened to the second game of the NLCS on our drive home Monday. The Mets had a grand slam and scored seven runs, and they still managed to keep us on the edge of our seats before winning the game mere blocks before we arrived home. Good for staying alert as the drive wore on, but so stressful. (The Mets are in a must-win situation now against a very strong Dodger team. May our pitching arms and our bats warm up as we need them.)

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. The Mets advance to the NLCS on a Francisco Lindor grand slam at Citi Field in the fourth game of the playoff against Philly.

2. After 12 straight days of rain, this week was beautiful. I spent time in the garden and knitting at a cafe and eating on a rooftop.

3. The folks who were going to do the District Hunt with me this year all ended up having to cancel. Instead of sulking, I did part Saturday morning and then went and played volleyball (because it was inconveniencing no one) and resumed it on Sunday afternoon. Did I run out of time to finish it? Yes. Did I let doing it alone stop me? No, I did not. And folks have already expressed interest in doing it together next year.

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