Gratitude for Fleeting Beauty

Quote of the day: “Photographers deal in things which are continually vanishing and when they have vanished there is no contrivance on earth which can make them come back again.” — Henri Cartier-Bresson

Gazing through my fall photos from less than a month ago, the world outside my window today looks like a totally different world. The gray days of November have arrived. Gone are the flashes of vivid color and the trees that look as if they are on fire.

Now is the in-between time, not yet winter, but bare of the glories of autumn. Most of the trees have dropped their leaves. The bright leaves have turned from gold, orange, and red to brown. Cloudy days reign and gray is the color of sky and tree trunks. Woodland and fields lie in shades of brown.

There was a skim of ice on the pond behind the house almost every day this week. Soon our mallard duck friends will leave for the winter. The fox will stop wandering by the pond longing for duck dinner.

Just as seasons vanish in the blink of an eye, life goes swiftly by. Photography has taught me to see and appreciate things “which are continually vanishing.” Today I am grateful for leaves of gold that shone for a season.

I am thankful to be awake and alive and living in the in-between season, neither fall nor winter. I look for ways to see the beauty of gray days and in-between times.

Textured Orange Leaves