I came across this remarkable story today about a man named Jamie Livingston who took a polaroid picture of his life every day for 18 years. He started this project in 1979 right up until the day he died from cancer in 1997 at age 41. His friends first did an art exhibit of this lifelong project and more recently, put them all on the web so more people could see and appreciate their friend’s contribution.
I found myself captivated by the images and I started thinking – what would my life look like if I took one image a day? Jamie didn’t do this project because he knew he was going to die – though looking back, I’m sure his family and friends were very grateful that they have this collection of images now. A lot of his pictures include friends, places he traveled to, people he met, things he saw that struck him interesting at the time. All memories of one day at a time.
Take some time to look through these images, particularly the last couple of years worth. And then ask yourself, what would your life look like? Would you have lots of friends, lots of smiles, lots of laughs? Or would it look more like the four walls of an office, or the inside of a board room? Would there be lots of pictures of your family, or lots of pictures with other things? What would it look like?
Now… what do you wish those pictures would look like?
It’s not too late to change it. There’s a new picture just waiting to be taken tomorrow.
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