Mistakes happen. No one is perfect because perfection is a myth. It doesn’t exist and never has. It’s a fictional creature that gobbles up your creative energy and robs you of your joy. Like an energy vampire that sucks out your creativity.

I learned this lesson yesterday in the most amazing way.

My dear friend and business coach Giovanni Marsico surprised me during a Zoom call yesterday by letting me know one of my all-time favourite authors, the legendary Seth Godin used one of my photos in his newest book.

What an amazing surprise.

Seth has a library of photos he could of used, but he chose my photo. What an absolute honour.

I was riding cloud nine… then I noticed my last name was misspelled.

What a bummer.

I was upset for maybe a minute, then I started to smile, and then before I knew it I was literally laughing out loud.

In that moment I knew this typo was not an accident. This was a clever gift from the Universe.

It was a beautiful lesson for me to take with me on my own artist journey.

Here’s the lesson.

If a 20 time best selling author, who is clearly a legend in his category can make a mistake on the jacket of his book, then I can bring my own expectations for my own work down a whole bunch.

What a gift this typo turned out to be. A reminder to be gentler and more compassionate with myself. Even with the best of intentions, inevitably there will be mistakes, typos, misspeakings, and things that fall through the cracks. It’s bound to happen.

When these things happen, I will do my best to own the mistake, see the lesson and do better in the future. I will also do my best to laugh and be gentle with myself. I will not let the mythical creature called perfection steal my energy or my joy.

Thank you Seth for this gift. Thank you for choosing my photo and for the truly wonderful experience I had during our photoshoot.

And of course thank you Gio for believing in me and giving me the opportunity to take my photography to the next level by working with living legends like Seth.

Big love,

D

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I woke up this morning feeling super blocked and unsure of what to write about. So I went through my old writing to this time last year, and was surprised to discover that exactly 365 days ago, I had the idea to take photos of strangers.

I had no idea people would love this project so much. I wasn’t thinking about that.

Mostly I just wanted to push my photography and creativity to a new edge and see what I discover.

There’s something so exciting about stepping into uncertainty, not for “follows” and external validation, but because you're curious to see what’s on the other side of the unknown.

It’s okay for an artist not to have it figured out or to be fully ready. Sometimes you just need to step into the unknown, one step at a time, and be open to discovering something new.

The following is from my journal exactly 365 days ago:

I bought this domain (www.nostrangers.art) yesterday.

I made the entire website today.

This weekend I am going out for my first set of photos for this project. I am nervous, but also excited.

I normally get a few hours with each person I photograph, but for this project I’ll only have seconds.

I have done this style of photography before and can be fun, except for all the rejection. I am curious to see if things are different now. Maybe people will be more open?

My intentions for NoStrangers:

• I want to take awesome photos of new humans.

• I want to have fun and feel creativity refreshed.

• I want to meet new humans and share their stories through this project.

• I want to grow as a photographer, artist and human.

• I want to emotionally impact as many humans as possible.

As I read this post from last year, I wonder if there is something I can learn about myself and my creativity as I step into the new project I am launching soon.

Big love,

D

PS: If you feel called to, dig into one of your old journals and drop a quote or piece of advice from your younger self in the comments below.