Doing the Work Suited for You

I recently read a powerful quote by the infamous photographer, Edward Weston.  You may recognize his most famous pepper that he photographed, shown on the left below.  I love Edward Weston’s work.

In Edward Weston’s book entitled Daybooks, a compilation of his writings about creating his work, on December 3, 1934 he wrote, “I must do the work that I am best suited for.”  

I find this above quote to be so simple, yet simultaneously profound — we have one precious life and we have the ability to pursue the work that we are best suited for.  I think each of us knows our callings if we are willing to listen.  And, if we are willing to listen, we can find a way to pursue the work that is best suited for us.

Below is a passage that Edward Weston wrote about photographing his famous peppers.

“It is a classic, completely satisfying, – a pepper—but more than a pepper: abstract, in that it is completely outside subject matter.  It has no psychological attributes, no human emotions are aroused: this new pepper takes on beyond the world we know in the conscious mind.

To be sure, much of my work has this quality, – many of my last year’s peppers, but this one, and in fact all the new ones, take one into an inner reality, –the absolute, – with a clear understanding, a mystic revealment.” —Daybooks, August 8, 1931

You can view Edward Weston’s beautiful work here.