Talk about born again

Four years ago yesterday I was in the more than capable hands of a cardiac surgery team at the Alfred Hospital having a double bypass to repair some clogged arteries. Not satisfied with taking the chainsaw to my ribcage once they went back in a few hours later for a second go and some patching up for which I am very grateful. So January 5th has become my re-birthday. This gives me two opportunities in January to reflect on my life and the things I feel blessed about...Jan 5th for the surgery and then on the 29th for my actual birth.

The story of my cardiac journey will I hope one day be read my many people when my book 'Oops I Broke My Heart' is eventually published (anyone know a publisher????).

I was feeling a bit crook yesterday so didn't quite get to take advantage of the day and celebrate but tonight I had a wonderful 'moment' which took me back to one of the magical times in my blessed life. And, as so often happens with me, it was a sheer fluke that it happened tonight. I was looking at my TV Guide and bemoaning that there wasn't much on and I would really quite like to 'veg' for the night. Then I espied on SBS2 a doco called 'Disfarmer'...I fair nearly wet myself! Okay,he's flipped out I hear you mutter...

In 2002 I was staying with my friend Ninna in Sweden.  One of the weekends there I went to spend in Gothenberg for the first time. A beautiful city with lots of interesting things to see.  One of the places i wandered into was the Museum of Art where there was an exhibition of photos from Heber County in the American West taken in the early part of the 20th Century. The photographer's name was Disfarmer.

These photos mesmerised me, wonderful portraits of farmers and townsfolk, looking natural (even somewhat raw) bemused, curious and ponderous, unfazed but cautious and in each one a story just bursting to be told. He captured the essence of every single person while they tried to show us nothing. All of them had gone to his ramshackle studio in town and parted with their 25cents ( a weeks wage for many) and walked away with a treasure.

Disfarmer was enigmatic as well. He was born Mike Meyer and 'claimed' to have been blown into town in a tornado. The unusual last name may have been his way of saying he was not a farmer or it could have been his belief that Meyer meant farmer in German (wrong). He was single, a little bit odd but clearly a photographic genius. He died in 1959 and in 2002 his photos were just starting to spark an interest. According to the doco he is now commanding thousands of dollars for one of the original photos and I surfed the net to see copies selling in the high hundreds.

I am thrilled to have seen the exhibition all those years ago and the images stick with me, they are purely magic. I hope you get to see them some day too.

What a lovely thing to happen in the shadow of my re-birth day...It made me smile, I'm so glad to still be here.