They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and that's certainly true of photographers. Many are inspired to capture images of objects we wouldn't normally consider beautiful - like the old painted pipes above.
And we're delighted when we stumble on natural beauty persevering in harsh circumstances - like the impatience I found blooming near a massive construction site on an early November day.
Or the bush tenaciously growing from the third story window frame of a derelict building.
Beauty of a different kind often appears in our darkest hours - when human connection and compassion glows most brightly.
Tonight, I am remembering my gentle father-in-law, in the late stages of Alzheimer's disease, sitting by my mother-in-law's bedside, clasping her hand as she lay dying of cancer. Though severely incapacitated by his disease and barely able to speak, the beauty of his love and caring was transcendent.
That humans are capable of appreciating and creating such beauty in unexpected places is perhaps some reason for optimism.
And a ladybug! Can't go wrong there. Beauty is everywhere, it's just harder to see in some places.
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