Raise your hand if you’ve had a harrowing week so far. Yeah?  In the words of Steely Dan,

“Everywhere around me, / I see jealousy and mayhem, / Because no man have their peace of mind / To carry them.”  And then further on:  “When the dawn patrol got to tell you twice, / They gonna do it with a shotgun.” I know!  It’s like they’re inside my head, all. The. Time. So how about some just plain good news, some things we can all be happy about? I’ll start:

1. Jen Fulwiler’s having a baby tomorrow! If babies are God’s way of saying that the world should go on, then a Fulwiler baby is God’s way of saying, “See? I told you the world should go on!”

2.  More young priests. “The average age of men ordained to the priesthood in 2011 is trending younger with the average age for the 2011 class at 34, with more than half between the ages of 25 and 34. This is slightly younger than in 2010, and follows the trend over the past five years of ordinands becoming younger.”

3. I haven’t heard a single thing about Donald Trump for almost a week. Nice.

4.  Hallie Lord has a book contract! Why? Because she had some time and energy left over from blogging about “Marriage, Moxie, and Modesty with a Vintage Twist,” running a personal shopping service, writing for various publications, raising five young children, and leaping tall buildings without mussing her long, glossy, superhero hair or showing an unseemly amount of leg. She is collaborating with a superb group of Catholic women writers for this book. It’s all very hush-hush at the moment, but stay tuned to Betty Beguiles for more details.

5.  When I asked my five-year-old daughter what people could be happy about, she said, “Did ya write down EASTER???” Good one, kiddo (Hopkins agrees.)

Last Sunday we did a practice run of the more accurate translation of the Nicene Creed, and I really enjoyed saying, “and I look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.” Less standing around calmly surveying our faith, and more looking forward with joy! 

Also, as someone who knows just the bitsiest little bit of Latin, it always drove me crazy to say “We believe” when any third grader can see that “credo” is in the first person singular. Whew! Finally saying, “I believe” is like taking a pebble out of my shoe.

6.  My left and right hands: Magic Eraser and Febreze. Call me shallow, but they make me happy.

7.  A little perspective:

Which makes me think of this:

Youth must with time decay
Eileen aroon!
Beauty must fade away,
Eileen aroon!
Castles are sacked in war,
Chieftains are scattered far,
Truth is a fixèd star,
Eileen aroon!

8.  And back to earth: I’m happy about wildflowers. Since regular mowing is a low priority this year, we have approximately a quarter of an acre of at least a dozen varieties of wildflowers clamoring for the sun right outside the kitchen window. Now, I know that the bright colors, the open, inviting design, the ravishing fragrance, and the graceful waving dance of a field of wildflowers in the breeze are all designed to encourage pollination for the continued healthy propagation of various species of insects, birds, and so on. But God didn’t have to make them so pretty. He didn’t have to give us eyes to see, or noses to smell, or tender hearts to swoon over the glossy petals of a buttercup. And yet, for no particular evolutionary practical reason ... here we are.

9.  It will be another couple of years before the new live action Star Wars TV series will be coming out. It’s kind of like when your doctor says, “Yes, you do have a tumor.  But it’s growing really, really slowly.”

10.  Okay, that’s nine from me. What’s your good news? What makes you happy today?