Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. I crashed my bicycle over the weekend (entirely my own fault), but was surprisingly lucky in terms of the outcome. It was a cool, damp evening, so I was wearing galoshes, bike gloves, and long sleeves, which cut down on the amount of skin I left on the pavement and increased my slidability. I was wearing my helmet with the sun visor, which bounced off the road instead of my nose or teeth. My right wrist is sprained, but not broken; my aches mostly faded before I had to go back to work Monday; and my scrapes, cuts, and some livid bruises (many of which are in places only Rudi and people at the pool should see from where I hit the brake levers when I tipped over the handlebars) are healing. People in the cars stopped on either side of me shouted immediate offers of assistance from their windows and pedestrians en route to the fireworks proffered water and additional ministrations, as Rudi helped me get off the roadway and onto the sidewalk.

2. While we knew that there would be fireworks nearby during our usual Friday evening picnic, we didn’t realize they’d be practically overhead.

3. My garden plot has a lot of foliage, which attracts insects, both good and bad. Some of the best, though, are the fireflies who greet me like curious fairies when I stop by near dusk. Dozens of them take flight and hover over the pathways, blinking lazily and making sure I’m not doing anything rash.

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