My OBT

What if you spent every day looking for One Beautiful Thing?

The Anniversary of an Idea

by 41 Comments

Etsomnia™ is being postponed by one day because an anniversary has snuck up on me, and I want to share it with you.

Yesterday, thanks to Facebook’s memories feature, I discovered that it was seven years ago that I got the idea for this blog! The early days of One Beautiful Thing were just daily posts on my Facebook wall (that only my friends could see). Here’s how they started:

“[I’m] reading a novel called Truth in Advertising. In it, two of the characters play something they call “One Beautiful Thing,” where they each have to report something beautiful they saw that day, no matter how bad the day. I can’t promise to play every day (I forget stuff), but I’m going to try…

“Here’s today’s: On the train this morning, I saw a couple who looked to be in their nineties. She was reading, and he reached over and tucked a stray piece of hair behind her ear. It was so intimate, it made my heart go a little squeezy. And if it weren’t for this game, I might have never thought of it again. Your turn!”

– August 26, 2013

After keeping up the daily private Facebook posts for a few months, I moved them over to a public-facing Facebook page. Then a high school friend suggested my scribblings had the makings of a blog, and 6 years later, here we are. You can see that my original beautiful things were much more personal than most of my posts these days. By the time that my daily posts were going up on the public Facebook page, in the interest of protecting my privacy, I started sharing artists and performances and other external things rather than sharing quite so much about myself. Of course, I eventually got comfortable, so by now you know pretty much everything about me.

In that spirit, I thought it might be fun to ask my readers to share something beautiful in their world today. Please chime in if you’d like to play along.

XOXO
Donna

Author: Donna from MyOBT

I have committed to spending part of every day looking for at least one beautiful thing, and sharing what I find with you lovelies!

41 thoughts on “The Anniversary of an Idea”

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  1. Anthony
    August 27, 2020 at 7:35 am

    Happy Anniversary.
    My two beautiful things for today are (in no particular order):
    1. The delicious pineapple jam I brought back from Colombia. It tastes delicious and it adds a whole new level to PB&J.
    2. I looked out my window and see that the weeds I pulled out of my lawn are back in force. While this doesn’t make me happy, I have to admire the tenacity of the little bastards.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    • Donna from MyOBT
      August 27, 2020 at 8:31 am

      I know what you mean about the weeds. There’s a house across the street from us that comprises 50% of my view when I’m working. The owners are in dispute with the program that built the house, so in the meantime, no one works or lives there. The weeds are having a party! They’re now waist height, and I swear I can see them laughing at me. However, on Tuesday, one of the bastards popped out a fantastic flower. Hard to hate something that has the ability to brighten up an unloved space. Very glad to hear from you!

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
  2. bcparkison
    August 27, 2020 at 7:39 am

    The sky….This mornings sky was a glorious color of red/orange.Of course we know that means’ sailor take warning’ and there is that terrible Laura blowing through Louisiana right now. My prayers are for everyone in her path. We may get a little wind and some rain but the most of it will be west of us.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  3. janhaltn
    August 27, 2020 at 8:23 am

    Because of temperature my windows have more than enough moisture that I can’t see out this AM. As the day does on, the windows will clear and the sun will shine in on my kitchen plants. The hurricanes are not headed here this time. That makes me happy another day. — Hal

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    • Donna from MyOBT
      August 27, 2020 at 8:34 am

      I’m so glad the hurricanes are giving you a miss! I remember that about Florida. It made such an impression on me as a child. We were there for vacation, and I remember being on the swings at the hotel and the sky just opening up and raining like crazy. I cried because I thought the whole day was shot, but half an hour later, here comes the sun. That happened every day we were there. I started looking forward to it, and we all took bets about what time it would rain.

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      Reply
      • janhaltn
        August 27, 2020 at 5:39 pm

        It is that time of the year here. Rain just about every day but hurricanes don’t cause the daily rains. They come off the gulf. I have now been here for six hurricanes. I live about as close as you can get to the center of Florida. Only two out of the six have come close to us and they really didn’t scare me. Now, that I made this post one might prove me wrong. I am not a real beach guy but even if I were, I would not live near the either coast. I have been here long enough to look forward to the rains so I don’t need to water the yard and my plants. Hal

        Liked by 1 person

      • Donna from MyOBT
        August 27, 2020 at 9:38 pm

        We had quite a lot of rain and wind tonight (and a tornado watch, if you can imagine). We enjoyed it all, and yes, we talked about how nice it was we didn’t have to water the plants!

        Like

  4. loisajay
    August 27, 2020 at 8:37 am

    We took a drive out to the beach yesterday and met the sweetest little Yorkie. I thought he had sand around his eyes, but they were his sugar whiskers–his owner told me he was 9 years old. Frail but adorable, and loved feeling the sand between his toes. Needless to say, I took an enormous amount of photos. He was precious.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  5. Ellie
    August 27, 2020 at 10:20 am

    Congratulations on 7 years! Of course One Beautiful Thing is my daily beautiful thing, but today in Colorado we actually have blue skies. For two weeks the smoke from forest fires in Colorado and California has covered our skies so they’ve been white and filled with the smell of smoke. Today I can see blue and actual clouds.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  6. Shroomworks
    August 27, 2020 at 12:22 pm

    Congratulations! I admire your dedication – every day, every single day! – and start my mornings with your blog.

    Today’s beautiful thing: I stood outside my door and listened to . . . absolute silence. I’m so privileged to live in an area where I usually hear no human sounds, where I can walk in my backyard forest for hours and not meet a human soul. I remain eternally grateful for this stage of my life.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    • Donna from MyOBT
      August 27, 2020 at 12:53 pm

      It’s so sweet to hear how many people are regular readers of my little things! Thank you for sticking with me. I love your beautiful thing! Silence is something that’s pretty rare in NYC, though Beloved and I are lucky enough to live on the water in a little town. Most of what we hear is seagulls (and our neighbor’s 70’s classic radio!).

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
  7. Laura (PA Pict)
    August 27, 2020 at 2:30 pm

    I am so very glad that you were inspired to create this blog. Your posts are always interesting, often uplifting, and you’ve created a wonderful community of followers too.

    My first beautiful thing today is that all of my therapeutic pandemic baking is paying dividends and I am experiencing greater success with baking yummy treats than I ever have before. I have always been a very good cook but considered myself to being a crappy baker (only capable of basic things like cookies and loaf cakes and brownies) but now I think I can shut down my Inner Critic voice that tells me I am crappy at baking.

    My second beautiful thing is that I finished my project to reorganize all of my teaching materials, art materials, and household stationery in the converted garage where I have also created a “spillover” larder. It doesn’t look smart or fancy but oh my goodness is it organized now. I know where every single item is in that room now. It feels satisfying.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    • Donna from MyOBT
      August 27, 2020 at 5:35 pm

      I love the feeling of having successfully organized something! I am in the middle of a similar project at work, and it’s difficult, but every time a piece of it is done, VICTORY!

      I’m impressed about the baking. I am also a good cook but a meh baker. I just don’t like to follow formulas, and baking is a much more recipe-reliant skill. I’d rather throw in things until it tastes good.

      And I’m so very grateful for you, who have become my real friend, and for our wonderful little virtual community!

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
      • Laura (PA Pict)
        August 28, 2020 at 2:12 pm

        Aw, thank you.

        We are alike in that regard then. I never follow a recipe. I am an instinctive cook and that approach does me well. I watch cookery shows and read recipe books but I regard them as inspiration rather than instructions and I rarely measure anything. Baking, of course, requires much more precision. It is probably just too much like science for me.

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      • Donna from MyOBT
        August 28, 2020 at 2:27 pm

        Exactly! I use recipes the same way. I use them for a list of ingredients (which I will likely modify), plus cooking times and temperature. I always thought of baking like chemistry (at which I did not excel). Twinsies!

        Liked by 1 person

  8. dawnkinster
    August 27, 2020 at 2:47 pm

    My beautiful thing today was a sunflower just opening. Blog about it will post tomorrow.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  9. Alison and Don
    August 27, 2020 at 3:18 pm

    Today is my 70th birthday! That’s pretty beautiful. Also I have a big vase of sunflowers brightening our living room, and Don is next to me – that’s the most beautiful of all. Oh and I’m having a big birthday dinner outdoors with friends tonight and Don has gotten me a flower crown! I’ve not seen it yet but I bet it will be beautiful! Scurrying off now to find your FB page. Finally it’s a beautiful thing that your high school friend encouraged you to start a blog so I get to see OBT every day. xox
    Alison

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  10. Safar Fiertze
    August 28, 2020 at 3:59 am

    The mist as it drifted into the valley while running. After summer heat in Portugal, a cooler day is much appreciated, not just by me, but everything that wants to grow!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  11. acflory
    August 28, 2020 at 6:44 am

    Happy Blogaversary! It’s been a hectic day and I’m tired but…dinner was nice. 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  12. Anna Cull
    August 28, 2020 at 10:21 pm

    Congratulations on your beautiful achievement! My OBT for the day was seeing a friend sing her own songs for the first time with her newly formed band. It had been postponed under recent lockdown rules in NZ but was able to go ahead last night as planned. Yay!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  13. Pingback: 10th Blog Anniversary!?! | My OBT

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