Go slow

and observe.

After 24 years, I am beginning to understand my innate skill with clay.

My hands can read it. They know how to form it on a potter’s wheel. They know how much pressure to exert on the clay to its spinning speed. I know what the clay can handle.

I understood this long before I first sat at a potter’s wheel.

Yet, I have so much to learn.

So, what now? Where do I take this talent?

Each day that begins, I ask myself a version of this question. I’ve been doing it for years, completely unknowing.

It can be intense and confusing—there seems to be a sea of understanding behind a guarded wall. A gate may open, but only in time. This is probably good because it would likely overwhelm me too greatly.

So, what now?

Go slow.

The message is to go slow, just as it’s always been. Go slow in discovering this work and uncovering its meaning, just as I would if a pot’s walls were approaching their limit.

Keep breathing. Keep wedging. Keep building community.

Observe, and the flow will continue.