x-posted to my Substack.

Yesterday evening I headed into the pottery studio for week 2 of a 4 week class on hand building. This is my 3rd round with this class because it takes me a while for things to really sink in AND I was totally hyperfixated on pinch pots during the first two rounds. This time, I’m fully embracing all of it because making anything saves my bacon *every single day*.

Last week, I learned a new way to pinch and coil and both came easily to me – probably because I did the ground work in the first two rounds. My teacher, Paul, makes everything we do super fun and has a knack for encouraging people like me to go ahead and make mistakes in the learning process – something I really appreciate. Coil building still isn’t my favourite thing, but at least, thanks to him, I can now roll an actual coil where before I would try to roll something round and smooth, but would end up with something flat and misshapen. He also made pinching so much easier with just a few tweaks and I was able to bang out a pot in no time flat.

Last night, we tackled slab building, which is something I really want to master because you can make so many different forms from slabs, and it’s something I can do with very little space at home. All you really need is clay, a surface to work on, a rolling pin and some width guides. You can even buy rolling pins with width guides built in from any good purveyor of baking supplies, so that makes things even easier.

Anyway, this is what I made:

I’m planning on glazing the little rose medallion at the bottom of the handle red and the rest a glossy black and I can’t wait to see how it comes out!

Something happened last night that I want to document because it while it might not seem like that much of a big deal to you, it was a huge deal to me. When I got home from the studio, I grabbed all the recycling, compost and garbage that I’d rounded up the day before and shuttled it all out to the curb before doing anything else. I didn’t even thing about it. I just grabbed it and set it out.

If you know me personally you know what a struggle that’s been for me over the last few years while I’ve been in the thick of executive dysfunction, task paralysis, and a freeze trauma response that would not quit. MAKING myself do these simple tasks was a little like what I imagine it must be like to climb a mountain, so I’m very grateful for this evidence of progress.

Sometimes proof of healing is in the most mundane things. A shiny sink. A freshly folded load of laundry. A willingness to pick up the phone.

I’m noticing it all.

In Other News

I’m happy to report that GG is back in touch via phone, which does my mama heart a lot of good. We’re not out of the woods yet, and frankly, we will never be because this illness is chronic and degenerative, but for right now, he’s alive, he’s coming back into lucidity, and he’s making better moves for himself now. By the way, I have permission to share about his illness, but he can withdraw that consent any time so if I suddenly stop mentioning him, or if my sharing about it gets cryptic, that would be why.

Meanwhile

It’s good to be typing furiously into this box of light even though it is very hard on my wonky eyes. I need this as part of my own set of tools I use to help me keep my head above rough waters and while video sharing has been helping with that, there’s nothing quite like writing to “get things off my chest”. A friend on Facebook said that the videos help her feel closer to me, though, so that’s good data and I get it. Typed words on a screen lack tone of voice or body language, where video gives you a more complete sense of who a person is and how they’re actually doing.

The more ways I’ve got to navigate this stormy time, the better, so I’ve pulled out all the stops. Writing, video, art, pottery, moments of silent reflection, sobriety support meetings, all the ways I touch in with the invisibles…

…times like these require stacks and oodles of coping mechanisms, especially when one is used to defaulting to really unhealthy ones.

Samhain Is Upon Us!

It’s Samhain Eve (<—click the link in case you have no idea what that is)and the veil seems thinner this year than in years past. Perhaps because we are all in such disarray and the ancestors know we’re in need of their guidance now more than ever. I’m glorying in the sense of connection, the whispers on the wind, the easy awareness that I am never alone.

I am SO looking forward to connecting with you live on Zoom on November 1st to talk about all of this, and to paint with you! Registration for this special event is open and I’m so looking forward to welcoming you into my community of art witches.

The Art Witch Familiar, Sybil, is sure to be in attendance, too!

And that’s it for me for now. I’ve got a ton of work to do to claw my way back from “overwhelmed and behind” and I’ve got the life force available to do it so with coffee in hand, I’m off to make some headway!

Sending love to all the places that need it.

P.S. If you’d like to get updates on things like when new classes are available or when I’m going live on YouTube, subscribe to my newsletter by clicking here.