Love is always there… if you look for it.

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There is something absolutely beautiful about winter, visually and metaphorically.

Any artist will tell you that simple, clean-cut designs are extremely challenging to execute well. Every mark, every decision of color, texture, or weight of a line is pronounced without any room for flaws. Simplicity is the trimming down of all unnecessary things and focusing on the structure. Nature is a remarkable example of taking a season to simplify.

Trees simplify every year, losing their leaves, flowers, and fruit, faithfully standing with nothing more than the barren branches that hold the promise of a spring yet to come.

I often turn to nature to remind me of the seasons that we each face. Each one brings with it growth and beauty in different ways. Even the simplicity of how nature sometimes lets things go is beautiful, not hanging on too long to the fruit that has ripened or letting lifeless leaves fall back to replenish the soil.

Beauty is there. Love is there.

When I took my camera out with me the other day, there was something else that I saw that made me smile. Although slightly abstract, from my vantage point, I saw a heart-shaped by branches. In these beautiful patterns of nature, the gentle encouragement and reminder to simplify, to stand tall, to let go, and to grow towards the sun are all messages of love. And when I was uploading my photographs onto my computer, I was overjoyed when my kiddo walked by just as this very image was loading and said, “Look, Mommy… do you see the heart?!” If we stop long enough to see what surrounds us, love will always be there.