My wonderfully talented (and quite competitive) wife has a new camera to support the increasingly popular photographs and videos she has been posting on her blog for some time now. Her confidence, genius, and visions of art broaden almost daily.

It has been something of a miracle for me to watch Maria over the decade of our marriage. When I met her, she was restoring old houses and had given up her art. She was terrified even to touch an Apple computer.

First, she got a laptop and slowly overcame her fear of it.

Then, she started a blog and then started writing on it.

She made her potholders, then her quilts, then her hanging pieces, now her placemats. She began taking photos on an iPhone. I badgered her into getting (she almost threw me out of the house the Christmas I gave it to her).

She is like one of those flowers you see on National Geographic in time-lapse photography; they grow every day.

Then she began doing her beautiful and very artistic and mystical videos taken on her walks in the woods with Fate. Every time Maria gets a new creative tool, it shapes and re-shapes her art and her passionate hunger for creativity and experiment. She always swears she will never need or want another.

For days, she wrestles with guilt and uncertainty. Do I need this? Do I deserve this? Can I afford this?

But she always moves forward, sometimes with a little prodding. Apple has been as good for her as it has been good for me – they make the tools in which we create.

Is Maria competitive? Yes, and so am I. For a while there, I was the writer, the photographer. Those were my exclusive offerings, a part of my identity.

I knew Maria was a gifted artist, but I had no idea Maria would be this good at so many different things. Sometimes it makes me nervous, she is a dynamo in every sense of the word,  but mostly, I am just thrilled for her.

Creativity is sacred to both of us, and I know that very few people have done what Maria has done – by herself, on her own, with little money, and under challenging circumstances.

Yes, I can help and try to help – we support one another – but nobody can make anybody else that creative, productive, and imaginative.

More than once every week, I see a photo and say, “wow, I wish I had taken that.” If anything, she inspires me to work harder and do better. I compete mostly with myself, but I marvel at her gifts.

She got a new iPhone 11 yesterday, mostly because of its astonishing new camera.  I saw her looking at some of my photos and hear the wheels beginning to spin.

She got the phone working, and this morning, in -10 degree weather, she went right outside and got the best possible photo of Lulu, one of our donkeys, in sub-zero cold. The photo captures the cold and the spirit of the durable donkey.

I have an Apple Card, so there was a special discount opportunity for me, and she is trading in her iPhone plus exchange. Maria is almost ferociously independent; she will pay for the iPhone herself, every penny.

I wouldn’t dare suggest otherwise. She won’t take money from me or anyone else that she hasn’t earned.

She always needs a lot of convincing to get anything for herself. Only the power of creativity could do it.

Maria is a person raised to believe she was not important or creative, and that she deserves nothing for herself. Every bit of new technology – the blog, a computer, an iPhone – has been difficult for her,  both in technical and personal ways. Every one of those tools has given her a powerful new inspiration for her art and creativity. She works at both every minute of every day.

Maria masters these opportunities and experiments with them constantly. She creates new ways of making art and seeing the world. She does things every day she never did. Last night, she was on the phone with Apple for two hours getting her new computer straightened out the way she wanted it.

She would have been terrified to do that a decade ago, or even a few years ago.

Maria has worked against this cruel libel of insignificance her whole life and overcomes it every day. I am so lucky to witness this growth and evolution. She is putting her mark on the world.

Perhaps I am the only person who knows how hard that has been for her. My heart nearly jumped out of my chest when I saw this photo of Lulu; all I could do was clap. More to come.

Maria came into the farmhouse this morning – she went out early, as I knew she would try out her new phone camera.

A few minutes later, she came in, not complaining about the cold, but with that gleam in her eye that told me she had scored another beautiful photo, done something impressive.

She had captured Lulu in the cold with whiskers frosted.

I can testify that this is not an easy photo to get with any camera. She’s off and running, another joy to watch and see.

Sweet words to write: Photo By Maria Wulf