WordPress Photo Challenge: Structure – The arrangement of and relations between the parts or elements of something complex.  Beauty – a combination of qualities, such as shape, color, or form, that pleases the aesthetic senses, especially the sight.In each of these objects from nature there is beautiful imperfection. A cone flower petal misplaced or the tip of a butterfly wing snipped off by a predator. Those slight irregularities in structure reveal the frailty and temporary nature of the beauty. Perhaps imperfections expand the qualities of beauty. This ancient gnarly cedar clutches the edge of a mountain bluff, enduring random forces of winds, water, and ice as only its random structure could do. Beauty comes through deep wrinkles that speak of its tenacity and resilience from years lived so close to destruction.

The above photos were from a recent hike on Mount Magazine, Arkansas’ highest mountain.