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“You are going to feel like hell if you never write the stuff that is tugging on the sleeves of your heart — your stories, visions, memories, visions and songs. Your truth, your version of things, your own voice. That is really all you have to offer us. And that’s also why you were born.”
Anne Lamott

“You are going to feel like hell if you never write the stuff that is tugging on the sleeves of your heart — your stories, visions, memories, visions and songs. Your truth, your version of things, your own voice. That is really all you have to offer us. And that’s also why you were born.”
Anne Lamott

Vivian Maier

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My professional photographer friend recently introduced me to Vivian Maier via this video he posted on Facebook. It is a fascinating story and worth the time to hear the story of her discovery.

You can read about her life and view some of her work here. The story of the discovery of her work and subsequent events is entertaining and worthy of a full “Storage Wars” production.

I have been drawn to Vivian’s story on several levels. Beyond her autobiography, there is the technical side. Her work was done mostly with a twin lens Rolleiflex camera. No zoom lens, auto focus, light meter, digital programming or other accoutrements  of modern equipment. The composition and lighting is amazing. Because most of her negatives were never printed, she apparently did not have or use the opportunity to enhance her work in the printing process. She was an amazing photographer. Of course, photography as an art requires more than technical skill and equipment.

Vivian had “an eye for photography”. It is that quality which is most impressive and a source of envy for me. She was able see and capture images in mundane and ordinary street scenes, imperceptible to most people. What Vivian’s images evoke in me is an acute sense of my failure to see and appreciate the wonder and uniqueness of life experienced in the ordinary. It would be wonderful to be a photographer of her stature, but my real desire is to be able to see and appreciate the kinds of things that she captured in her thousands of images.

Vivian’s story leaves a lot of questions. Why would she spend her life photographing street scenes and never share them? Because most of her images remained negatives, did she even reflect on her work to any significant degree? Was her work a daily record of a spiritual journey or just a means to self-gratification never intended for any other purpose? Was her photography the equivalent of being a relentless marathon runner?

No matter what her motivation, her images challenge me to lean into life, open my eyes and capture moments otherwise lost amid distractions I have mistakenly thought to be more important than life itself. To do so, is to live an abundant life.

Wanderers

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Education of a Wandering Man (Louis L’Amour)
We are, finally, all wanderers in search of knowledge. Most of us hold the dream of becoming something better than we are, something larger, richer, in some way more important to the world and ourselves. Too often, the way taken is the wrong way, with too much emphasis on what we want to have, rather than what we wish to become.

Thinking About Change

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This morning I came across this quote by John Stackhouse in an essay he posted. It is a good and timely reminder for me.

We need to remember that any lasting change of people’s values to those of the Kingdom of God … is a part of authentic conversion, and conversion is the province of the Holy Spirit, not us.

A New Year’s Prayer

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Psalm 5:1-3
Give ear to my words, O Lord, consider my sighing.
Listen to my cry for help, my King and my God, for to you I pray.
In the morning, O Lord, you hear my voice;
in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation.

Thinking About the Journey

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I was reading through some notes I have saved and came across this quote from Richard Rohr.

“If you surrender to the fear of uncertainty, life can become a set of insurance policies. Your short time on this earth becomes small and self-protective, a kind of circling of the wagons around what you can be sure of and what you think you can control–even God. It provides you with the illusion that you are in the driver’s seat, navigating on safe, small roads, and usually in a single, predetermined direction that can take you only where you have already been. For far too many people, no life journey is necessary because we think we already have all our answers at the beginning. ‘The church says, the Bible says, etc.’”

(Richard, Rohr, The Naked Now)