Today was an especially not-great workday in what had already been a pretty crappy workweek. But thanks to a prescient past-me, I have Easter Monday off, and I am shutting my laptop at 3 tomorrow afternoon no matter what remains undone at that time.

The first key to not letting the mess sweep me under is breathing. Slow breath in. Hold it. Slow breath out. Breathe into the tight spaces in between the tensions. Sink deeper into that infinitesimal stretch. Pull your shoulders a fraction further away from your ears. Breathe out.

And the second is to recognizing amidst the storm clouds there are moments of calm. Finding those good pieces and holding onto them. Knowing there are more beyond the horizon even if they’re not in sight right now.

Three such beautiful things from my past week:

1. UConn squeaked out an amazing victory over Baylor in the Elite 8 round of basketball, winning by two as a dramatic, Hail Mary throw was intercepted by our freshman phenom. This was finals-level hoops by two great teams, and I can only hope that the next two rounds include slightly fewer hearts-in-our-mouths moments.

2. Rudi took me down to see the cherry blossoms after he picked me and my stuff up from the office today just before sunset. (Still have a job. Work is just looking for new digs, and we needed to clear out of our old space.) Brisk winds had brought in late afternoon flurries as an April Fool’s prank, so the crowds had cleared out, allowing the park police to reopen Hains Point to traffic.

3. There was a bluebird afternoon earlier this year week, and I told Rudi we should take advantage of my window between meetings to go grab bagel sandwiches and tea from some local shops. And then it was too nice to quickly return home, so we sat in a triangle park and ate in the sun for a few extra minutes.

How about you? Please, for the love of everything bloggish, share what’s been beautiful in your world lately.