Did you ever have friends who could cook or paint or play the piano or decorate better than anyone... but they didn’t think it was a big deal? They couldn’t imagine that someone would ever pay them to do what they do so well.
It reminds me of a woman named Vivian Maier. She was a reclusive Chicago nanny. Throughout the 1950s, 60s and 70s, Vivian spent most of her free time taking photographs. She loved to snap candid shots of people in the streets with an old Rolleiflex camera – the kind with the viewfinder you look down into.
Vivian knew her photos were good. But she never really showed them to anyone. She put them in boxes by the thousands and stacked them in a storage locker. When she stopped paying the monthly rent, the company auctioned them off.
That could have been the end of the story. But a historian named John Maloof bought some of the boxes and eventually posted some of the photos on Flickr. Vivian’s work went viral. They even shot a documentary about her that was nominated for an Oscar®. Vivian Maier is now acknowledged to be … well… a genius.
It’s like the great spiritual teacher Wayne Dyer once said: “Don’t die with your music still inside you.” … your music, your photos, your painting, your writing, your sewing, your cooking, your baking, your woodworking, your gardening, your knitting, your embroidery, your quilting… and on it goes.
Do you really want to be another Vivian Maier?
Step away from the storage locker. Let it out. Let us see!
Now that’s a pretty picture. 😀
