A Perspective on Disappointment

I lived in France for a long time. Paris was my favorite place to live ever, my second backyard, my second home. I moved back to the U.S. 2 ½ years ago and have slowly been settling into a new business teaching French and writing. I haven’t been back to France for a visit, but wanted to go this year. I wanted to see friends, and  had some research I wanted to do for books. I started planning many months ago. Okay, I wasn’t financially solid enough, but thought I might be, by the time the trip...

The End in Mind

I learn a lot of life lessons from my hobby, pottery. Sometimes I go to the studio and just want to express myself in a creative outlet. By thrusting my hands into the clay, I touch a substance that can express me, but isn’t me. Who knows what I’ll end up with?

Actually, it’s better to have a small notion of what I’m aiming for before I begin. Adventure and the unknown are good for certain things, but flying by the seat of your pants doesn’t usually improve your results.

When I sit down at the wheel with a round ball of clay that I’ve carefully patted into shape, I first get out the air bubbles and center the mound. Then I start making something. However, I have to at least know if I’m making something bowl-shaped or cylindrical, since that will determine how I begin. What I end up with will be far different from what I intend, if I don’t decide beforehand.

Thankfulness …

Hoping your turkey-eating, family-seeing, time-enjoying holidays are wonderful! No matter what’s happening a daily thankfulness habit is as good for your day as a session at the gym or a handful of vitamins. Or better. But at this time of year, I stop and look back, then look forward, filled with the certainty that all is well, and will be. God is good.

The Greatness of Being a Beginner

At times it’s uncomfortable being a beginner. I look at my Italian book and I don’t know how to say anything useful, other than “the dishes are in the kitchen”. Um…where else would they be?

Same thing happens in the pottery studio. I look at the pieces of art made by professionals who use the same studio, and it makes me feel pretty small. I wonder, just how LONG will it take to make something that doesn’t look like an artifact from Pompeii? (post-volcanic eruption, I mean…)

And I won’t get started about fiction-writing. There, the learning curve is so far out, you can’t see the end.

Quotes for the Dream

Today I got into a closet-cleaning mood. I really have to act on it when it happens, because it won’t happen again until the next comet is scheduled to fly by. As I re-organized, a couple of interesting things surfaced. A couple of necklaces I thought I’d lost, and a folded-up piece of paper. I was intrigued. I opened it and it was a copy of some encouraging quotes from different sources. I wrote them down several years ago for a group I wanted to do when I lived in France, a small group of...