“For the next 31 days, allow yourself to be surprised by joy. Find one tiny thing that catches you by surprise in its delightfulness or its beauty.” – Field Guide to Everyday Magic

Today when I stumbled across this book during some fall cleaning, I flipped through and paused at this prompt. I went for a very long walk with the dog earlier and found myself surprised by a number of beautiful and delightful things.

The first was this beautiful little bloom, standing defiantly and doing its thing where absolutely no one would expect it to do so.

Then there was this random little smiley face in the concrete outside a nearby sports stadium. I have no idea how it was formed, but is permanent.

But this walk had a number of little joys that surprised my other senses as well: the scent of fried bacon drifting from an open kitchen window or fresh laundry flowing from dryer vents; a soft, cool breeze lifting Finn’s long ears; young kids laughing during football practice. I haven’t decided if I’ll take up the challenge of recording everything for the next 31 days. But in the meantime, I sure enjoyed these little delights today.