In Search of Beautiful Things (and Creative Inspiration) - September 2024
In Search of Beautiful Things (and Creative Inspiration) - September 2024
30 moments of everyday beauty from this past month - photographed by 5AM StoryTalk's readers and curated by me - to help inspire you on your personal and creative journeys
Earlier this year, I shared with 5AM StoryTalk’s readers the story of an experiment I undertook that transformed both my personal and artistic lives. You can read about it in detail here, but to recap…back in 2017, professional anxieties — born from starting over in a new country after my family moved to the United Kingdom, not to mention the recent death of my mother and the constant dire news about the state of the world — sent me into a bit of a personal and creative tailspin. I began to lose focus on how lucky I was to have been able to up and leave my birth country over political differences with it. My solution:
I decided to look for beauty every day.
I never defined what “beautiful” meant, by the way. I just knew I’d know it when I saw it, regardless of its form. Sometimes this meant something conventionally beautiful, such as, say, a Georgian façade or a two-century old bridge or a piece of street art. But it could just as easily mean a sunset over the Thames, a pint of great ale in an old pub, a colorful door in Notting Hill, picnics in the summer sun, a choir rehearsing in a dimly lit church, an amazing donut spilling its guts out, a gallery wall in a museum, a busker singing her heart out, spring blossoms and autumn leaves, a scribble of graffiti on a bathroom wall, a Sunday roast when the cheesy leaks are cooked juuuuust right…well, you get the idea.
The effect on my mental health was near-instantaneous and the impact on my writing was even more extreme. Within a couple of months, I was churning out work again at a clip I was accustomed to. Moreover, the ideas I was generating, the stories I was discussing with producers, quickly began producing paid work. That work beget more work. This became the most prolific and creatively successful stretch of my career.
In the years since, my commitment to this practice has wavered as my life has gone through more ups and downs. But in part to recommit myself to it, I shared with readers the details of this journey. Honestly, at the time, I felt it was one of my more self-indulgent posts. I missed England, in particular, and it was nice to talk about an experience I had there and share some photographs I’d been going through. The response, however, was overwhelming. The essay was shared over and over and I heard from so many people about what it meant to them. Inspired by how much others seemed to take from it, I decided to take things another step further. I began to post Notes, asking for people to share moments of beauty from their own lives. Again, I was stunned by the number of responses I received from around the globe. My little experiment had seemingly inspired others to begin searching for beauty in their daily lives, too.
Long story short: I’ve decided to take this communal search for beauty, these little glimpses into your lives, and turn it into a monthly feature also called “In Search of Beautiful Things (and Creative Inspiration)”. Every month, I will review photographs shared by readers in Notes and via direct emails and curate an article offering 28, 30, or 31 moments of beauty depending on how many days each month has. This isn’t a “best of” or contest or anything like that, don’t be confused. My decisions are based in part on what moves me and how various images juxtapose with each other to create what I hope to be an interesting visual journey through people’s lives. Hopefully, the result will inspire you if you’re feeling creatively — or even personally — lost and maybe even encourage you to look for more beauty in your own lives. But as important as this is, I also hope we can build a community of seekers together here.
This project will only work as long as you all want it to.
Now, please, enjoy these 30 moments of everyday beauty from August 2024 — and thank you to those who shared them with us. The photographs come from four continents and nine countries.
Please note: If you would like to submit a recent photo of everyday beauty from your life, to be considered for next month’s installment of this series, look for an upcoming Notes call to action from me or email 5AMStoryTalk@gmail.com. Full instructions at the end of this article.
DAY 1
By
EnglerMadison, Wisconsin - United States
Cicada shedding its skin.
DAY 2
By
Astoria, New York - United States
All the elements added up.
DAY 3
By
Abergele, Wales - United Kingdom
DAY 4
By
Wineglass Bay, Tasmania - Australia
DAY 5
By
Hollywood, California - United States
My little blue merle Aussie, inside the Amoeba Music record store on Hollywood Boulevard last week.
DAY 6
By
Sydney, New South Wales - Australia
DAY 7
By
Antelope Canyon, Navaho Reservation - United States
DAY 8
By
Carpinteria, California - United States
Aug 6, Bates Beach. The afterglow of a birthday party for our dear 45-year-old friend Brendan Willing James, whose life was visited by tragedy which I wrote (and sang) about at length last month.
At the party, there was another fellow traveler there who had lost his wife and the little girl who my wife is cozying up to in this photograph endured two ER visits this past month. (She’s now right as rain.)
DAY 9
By
Seattle, Washington - United States
Hydrangeas are everywhere in Seattle, in white and blue and in this lemon mousse.
DAY 10
By
Itea - Greece
DAY 11
By
Hamburg, Pennsylvania - United States
This is Pulpit Rock. The view up there just goes on for milessssss.
DAY 12
By
Somewhere between Spain and the U.K.
This is the wake of the sea disappearing into fog from the back of Royal Caribbean’s Anthem Of The Seas. It's beautiful in an eerie way. We've sailed in various weather conditions, but we've always been able to see where we're going!
DAY 13
By Kristy Moresi
Rabun Gap, Georgia - United States
Cabbage on a flatbed truck - taken at Osage Farm Stand.
DAY 14
By
Broome, Western Australia - Australia
DAY 15
By
Seabrook, Washington - United States
The “Gnome Trail” encourages children to set up miniature villages and tableaus in the forest.
DAY 16
By
Kent, British Columbia - Canada
This is from lakeside camping this week in Sasquatch Provincial Park. -
DAY 17
By
Easton, Pennsylvania - United States
I was boiling water to cook corn on the cob and noticed how beautiful it was. This is about 180 degrees F. The Chinese call this temperature fish eyes. -
DAY 18
By
Bruny Island, Tasmania - Australia
A wintry day.
DAY 19
By
Upper Peninsula, Michigan - United States
DAY 20
By
Banff, Alberta - Canada
Playing a game called “Hittser” and discovered this song. What’s more beautiful than enjoying old music for the very first time, 100 years after it was first sung?
DAY 21
By James Cleveland Watley (
)Los Alamos, New Mexico - United States
This is a photo of Big Tesuque Creek, in Santa Fe National Forest, the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, a couple of miles below Ski Santa Fe.
DAY 22
By Kent Peterson (Kent’s Substack)
Superior, Wisconsin - United States
DAY 23
By Annie Wood (
)Rimini - Italy
This dog felt the energy of the group, I guess, and needed to feel those center vibes.
DAY 24
By
Belas - Portugal
This is a picture of the gate we installed to keep the feral roosters out of the garden we planted in our first year as residents of Portugal. There is another gate just like it on the other end of the garden (horta).
DAY 25
By
North Jersey, New Jersey - United States
I got my daughter a book on identifying mushroom and we roamed the neighborhood looking for some. We came upon a couple types which she was able to categorize. These are (probably) jack-o-lantern mushroom growing wild in a shaded spot under an evergreen. It’s a bit of quality time I really enjoyed.
DAY 26
By
Krepcha - Bulgaria
The Rock Monastery in Krepcha, such a peaceful and powerfully spiritual place.
DAY 27
By Lindsay Devlin
Bowral, New South Wales - Australia
This was taken at Retford Park, my favorite place in the Southern Highlands.
DAY 28
By
Wharton, New Jersey - United States
A remnant of the old Morris Canal in Hugh Force Canal Park, along with one of its few remaining locks.
DAY 29
By
Danville, California - United States
Whenever I hit an especially challenging bit while writing a story, I need just go running this trail to find a way forward.
DAY 29
By Reda Roundtree (Only Murders In The Inbox)
Long Beach, California - United States
The last week of summer vacation.
DAY 30
By Christopher Woodrow-Butcher (
)Taipei - Taiwan
A serene alleyway late at night in Taipei where I live. Stopped to appreciate a small moment.
DAY 31
By
Bath, England - United Kingdom
Cassiopeia rising above the trees on a beautifully clear night during our annual family trip to stay with my parents in Bath.
If you would like to submit a recent photograph of everyday beauty from your life, to be considered for next month’s installment of this series, look for an upcoming Notes call to action from me or email 5AMStoryTalk@gmail.com. Please include:
A hi-res photograph
Your first and last name
The location, even if it’s just a town or county or the name of a mountain range
Any note you would like to include to provide context (these are optional)
The rights to these photos will remain yours, of course, but submitting them should be understood as permission to publish them.
Oh, and spread the word if you can by sharing this article. I will never paywall this series, so helping to signal boost this just makes the experience richer for all of us who choose to become involved.
I look forward to continuing this exploration of moments of everyday beauty with you here at 5AM StoryTalk!
If this article added anything to your life but you’re not up for a paid subscription, consider buying me a “coffee” so I can keep as much of this newsletter free as possible for the dreamers who couldn’t afford it otherwise.
If you enjoyed this particular article, these other three might also prove of interest to you:
I love this feature Cole. These photos remind us, strongly, to be present, in the now (as much as is possible with the way things are in the world today) so we may truly see and appreciate the beauty around us. Thank you!
Wonderful to see the diversity of images and what catches each person’s eye. I enjoyed reading the comments from the photographers, this is a nice addition. Thanks, Cole for helping to draw our attention to all this beauty.