Pollyanna

Despite the fact that the sun shone today, it's been a gray, grey week. And though Christie and I try to keep the blog light, I woke up this morning determined to post a blog about everything that happened this week to bring me down.

Then.

So I decided that it might not be the best idea to post a downer post because, I have to admit it, I'm pretty damn lucky. So instead I'm going to post five things that make everything okay:

1) The bulbs are beginning to sprout. They're poking their deep green stems up, just a bit. It's like they're peeking out of the ground, making sure it's okay to come out and be beautiful.
2) The blueberries are beginning to bud. My mouth will be watering every time I walk past them from now until June.
3) Last weekend, I received an e-mail sent at 2:18 am from a student who was so excited about the paper she was writing that she just had to tell someone. If that doesn't fill your heart with hope for the future of America, I don't know what will.
4) I had doughnuts for breakfast today. Helen Bernhard, I will always have a soft spot in my heart (and around my waistline) for you.
5) Wrigley left a phone message on my work voice mail that she had seen bright yellow birds that we had never seen before and a starling at our birdfeeder. She called back moments later to report that the yellow bird was a golden crowned sparrow. I'm not sure if this captures the quality of her voice, but she sounded about as excited as an 18 year old sending an e-mail at 2:18 am.

And, since I've always been bad at counting:

6) I have friends that I love enough to be saddened by their sadness; they have friends that love them enough to be saddened by their sadness, and friends who will do anything we can to help, even if it's something as dumb and simple as posting an overly optimistic blog post.