Mid-September

The days are getting shorter though the weather is still warm. My walks in the neighborhood bring me great delight as I watch the ponds, trees, and plants begin to prepare for the coming winter.

Though I am not looking forward to the end of warm days, I am enjoying

There are many wood ducks gathered in the pond that lies across the street and down the hill from our house. This morning I enjoyed watching them and listening to the haunting cries of a female wood duck.

I am discovering great pleasure in photographing the seasonal changes in my own backyard and neighborhood. In past years I longed to travel somewhere else—somewhere more interesting. But these days I am finding great joy in seeing the beauty of ordinary scenes in my own neighborhood, even on my own deck.

I’m feeling so blessed to have so many paths that meander beside ponds and through the trees near where I live. Everywhere I look I see little scenes of beauty beside the paths. And when I look out my windows at the pond, again I see beauty.

Finding beauty in a broken world is creating beauty in the world we find. ― Terry Tempest Williams, Finding Beauty in a Broken World

You don’t need to go somewhere else to find beauty. And you don’t need perfection. Beauty exists wherever you are if you look for it.

Shards of glass can cut and wound or magnify a vision. Mosaic celebrates brokenness and the beauty of being brought together.
― Terry Tempest Williams, Finding Beauty in a Broken World

What beauty can you see in your own backyard or in your neighborhood today?

May you walk in beauty.