This week has been a series of exercises in Letting Go and Moving On
Monday:
Two of our dear dog-friends passed away. My brother’s dog, Jake, and our friends’ dog, Tyler both said good-bye on Monday. It was a very sad day and I held Molly and Lexy a little tighter and a little longer. I couldn’t help but think of my brother and our friends and how they must have been feeling. And I remembered the other dogs that are no longer here with us, especially my dog Pebbles. That’s the thing with pets, they bring so much joy and love into our lives when they’re with us and they break our hearts when they leave. It’s not fair to them to keep them here in this world just for our own comforts, so as hard as it is, we have to let them go and move on with our lives, all the while remembering how fantastic they were.
Good bye Jake and Tyler, I’m so glad I knew you.
Tuesday:
I began sorting through all of my unglazed pottery, making piles of pots to give as gifts (and to fulfill all of your requests!). I looked at my teapots all standing in a row like little tea soldiers and I froze for a moment. How could I give any of these teapots away? Each of them represents how far I’ve come; from hardly making any pottery at all, to finally getting my mojo back and rediscovering my inspiration. I look at those teapots and I have such an attachment to them. How can I let them go? I must have sat on the floor for about half an hour thinking about which teapots I could give away and who I would give them to. Then it hit me, how many teapots do I actually need? Not as many as I’ve made and if I hang on to all of them they’ll never get used or be enjoyed.
It would be selfish to hang onto them, so I have to let them go, move on and make more teapots.
Wednesday:
While trying to get a few more glaze tests done, something weird was happening to my pots and the glaze. Specifically the glaze was not adhering to the pots. Some online research and a phone call to the clay supplier later, I found out that I had fired almost all of my pots at too high of a temperature and I was not going to be able to glaze them. All those pots I sorted into neat piles to give away cannot be glazed. Most of the teapots cannot be glazed. My little dragonfly tea set cannot be glazed. My thoughts began that negative spiral, heading into a dark abyss when I realized that this too, is something I just have to let go of this week.
So I wrecked a bunch of pots, just let it go, move on and make some more.