Visionmongers and Friends

Whenever I hear the song ‘my friend’ by Groove Armada, there’s always one person that immediately pops up in my head…
I’ve known my best friend  for 12 years, though we’ve been through so much together that really it feels like we’ve known each other a lifetime.
People who work with me think I’m very independent and prefer to do things myself. I am still learning how to delegate things. I was raised with the notion that it’s impolite to ask things for yourself – and when offered something, always first say no. I hate to inconvenience people, least of all my friends.

When 2 months ago, Zack Arias posted this contest, I was really excited. I’ve been following his blog for quite a while, not just because his photography is inspiring, but because he is always hungry for knowledge and eager to share what he’s learned – and I’m not just talking aperture and focus.
Anyway, this was not just a contest where you could enter and win some equipment – first of all the prize was really for people who wanted to improve their photography, but also – in true Christmas spirit – you could only enter to nominate someone you think would be worthy of the prize.

Obviously I missed the point completely as I did not think of someone to nominate, but rather who could nominate me. Throughout my year living alone in Sydney, photography became my sole comfort. When Bram joined me, my learning curve dropped but my love of photography certainly didn’t.
So, excited as I was, I asked my best friend for help. As I mentioned above I DON’T NORMALLY DO THIS. What made it a lot easier is that Kim is one of the best writers I know and she enjoys projects that really challenge her.

Boy am I happy I did!!!
No, I didn’t win the books (check the winning stories here), but that’s not the point.
The point is I gained so much more. Kim was so incredibly generous. She was snowed under and had absolutely no time, yet dedicated herself to write an amazing story. She wrote and edited and wrote and edited. She was afraid I might not like it or other people would laugh at the effort, she took a risk and I’ve been a changed person ever since. There’s so many things people never put into words, and they should.
Click here to see the story she wrote about me.

I never knew she realized how deep certain desires sit inside of me, the things beneath the surface we know about but are too scared to mention to others, for some idiot fear of failing I don’t know what exactly.

Not sure if Zack and Megan know that they gave a lot more presents than intended, just by inspiring people to write about their friend/colleague/significant other/somebody.
It certainly has reminded me to be more generous, grateful AND let more people know how I feel about them.

Thank you so much Kim for being my friend.
Hope today’s post is a bit of a surprise for you, one of the good ones.

love you
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