Finding Beauty in Dreary November

After a couple of weeks of very cold weather, the temperatures have returned to more normal November temperatures in Minnesota. It’s funny how warm 30-something degrees can seem after some below zero wind chills.

I always think of November as the grayest month of the year. After most of the leaves have fallen and the everything has endured at least one hard freeze what seems most prevalent is brown and gray. Even the skies are often gray in November.

Finding Beauty and Color in Dreary November

Sunday I decided to head out the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum in search of any remaining color in its varied landscapes. I was quite surprised by how much color I found. Now it’s not to be found everywhere. And often it’s a more muted color than summer’s lush bright colors or autumn’s gaudy displays.

It reminded me again of how much more beauty I see in the world since I fell in love with photography. Even when I’m not carrying a camera I see it in every direction every day. It’s often hiding in plain sight waiting for me to notice it.

Before I began making photographs I wouldn’t have noticed the beauty of brown spiky seed heads. Now I not only see it, I stop to photograph it.

You can notice beauty everywhere too. Try taking a walk and slowing down to look at the ground beneath your feet, to the left, to the right, above your head, and even behind you. What do you see? Is there a graceful leaf or an interesting bit of moss, a lichen, a shape, a rock, a color that draws you in? Bend over. Look closely.

Beauty Hides in Plain Sight

Pay attention to the quality of the light. Where does it create shadows and highlights? Is there a subtle glowing around that cluster of leaves or through the trees? How does it make you feel?

Watch the sky for openings of light. There is nothing that delights me more than finding a patch of clear blue sky on a cloudy day. Or noticing fluffy white clouds dancing across the sky.

“When you regain a sense of your life as a journey of discovery, you return to rhythm with yourself. When you take the time to travel with reverence, a richer life unfolds before you. Moments of beauty begin to braid your days.”
― John O’Donohue, Divine Beauty: The Invisible Embrace

As I sit in my office writing this post I look out my window and see gray skies and brownish-gray bare tree tops. I would never imagine the beauty awaiting me if I simply step outside and look around me. All I have to do is change my point of view. If I get up from my office chair, walk out to the kitchen and look out my kitchen window I see black tree trunks and faded gold maple leaves, paler gray thin branches and green moss growing on one tree trunk.