Last week I visited a friend’s backyard garden for the first time in several years. It’s one of those hidden delights that you don’t expect to find in the city. I visited her garden several years ago but she just keeps adding delightful plants and little statues and other interesting finds. I fell in
Garden Love
as I wandered through all of her fascinating and beautiful plants. Much of her garden is shaded by towering old oak trees and the view from her deck made me want to spend a day simply gazing out at all the beauty.
View from the deck
My friend is as passionate about gardening as I am about photography. And it’s simply delightful seeing what she has created. There is something about being with someone who is following her passion that fills me with joy. It’s as if that person is shining a bright light on everyone around them. When my friend was talking about her projects and plants she was lit up from the inside out.
Passion can seem intimidatingly out of reach at times – a distant tower of flame, accessible only to geniuses and to those who are specially touched by God. But curiosity is a milder, quieter, more welcoming, and more democratic entity. The stakes of curiosity are also far lower than the stakes of passion. […] Curiosity only ever asks one simple question: “Is there anything you’re interested in?” Anything? Even a tiny bit? No matter how mundane or small? The answer need not set your life on fire, or make you quit your job […]; it just has to capture your attention for a moment. But in that moment, if you can pause and identify even one tiny speck of interest in something, then curiosity will ask you to turn your head a quarter of an inch and look at the thing a wee bit closer. Do it. It’s a clue. It might seem like nothing, but it’s a clue. Follow that clue. Trust it. See where curiosity will lead you next.
― Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear
It’s a good thing, I think, following your curiosity or your passion and sharing it with the world. I feel very blessed to have discovered my passion for photography in my second half of life. I never tire of spending time making photographs, working on photographs, talking about photography, and helping others learn more about photography.
What are you curious or passionate about? When was the last time you followed your curiosity?
May you walk in beauty.
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