Mountain trees, buffeted by fierce winter winds, often grow in peculiar ways. Looking at the direction their limbs grow, you can tell the wind tends to focus in one direction.To survive, the tree must adapt.

A young arborist who likes to camp near my “neck of the woods” talked excitedly about this phenomena when he found out where I live. “I’ve never before seen a place where the trees do that.” He grew up in a land of pines, too, but pines more likely to encounter a hurricane’s circular winds than the harsh winter winds that blow from the northwest.

I hope you’ll take a moment today to notice the trees around you. Do they grow lopsided to survive a singular wind? Or are they full all the around their trunks?

Join me in the hunt for beauty?
Where do you see beauty in a broken world? Want to add your own images during the 31-day journey? If so, feel free to comment below with your Instagram handle, and tag your Insta posts with #beautyinabrokenworld. You’ll find me there @pixofhope.