Beautiful Things

Beautiful bleeding hearts; image from home.howstuffworks.com.

It was a rough, challenging day again in some big ways. I hope we can make it through. But it was beautiful in others:

• Figgy's visit to Pratt Institute in Brooklyn to see a world-class art school--thanks to my friend Cathy, who teaches there and drove Fig in at 6:45 A.M. 
• Clean sunshine and energizing breeze. Perfect for boot camp in Brookdale Park with my friends. Laughter there, too.
• A morning walk with Sug--we even stopped to listen to the creek flow, me and my dust- mop girl--and a later walk with Sug, Barbara and Benz past the Iris Gardens.
• Bleeding hearts growing near our garage. I clipped a couple of shoots and put them in my grandmother Alice's pretty blue vase, on my desk.
• Phone calls with two experts with insight.
• Laundry dried on the rack outside, by the basket of purple and yellow pansies.
• Nap on couch. 
• Emails exchanged with my Sis.
• Work. The tapping of the keyboard, the stirring of thoughts, the hunting for and knitting together of facts to strengthen an article pitch. The furrow I can feel between my brows, because I'm concentrating.
• The cannoli-flavored "pudding" I made in my parents' glass goblets for dessert--with local, farm-fresh ricotta from Whole Foods, Nielsen-Massey Madagascar Bourbon Pure Vanilla Bean Paste, orange extract, a couple tablespoons heavy cream, a couple tablespoons confectioners sugar, a shake of cinnamon and some good quality dark chocolate chips.
  
• H. at the dinner table with me and Fig.  The patience and commitment H. and I conveyed--could be considered a new way of saying grace.
• A talk on the phone with someone kind.

 Good night. Let's all open our windows and let the breeze stir the curtains.