There’s been a lot of congestion in the streets of my neighborhood this past week, cars backed up for blocks and impatient hands blaring horns. One morning a woman screamed out of her car window, her anger flaring toward a bus unloading kindergartners toddling into school. Later, I smiled at a man bursting with song while he waited, his radio turned up, beaming at me from his car window.
These two vastly different reactions to the traffic made me think of the frustration and opportunity of the wait. I know the wait well in my pottery practice, a craft known for its painstakingly slow process - the wedging and throwing and drying and trimming and drying again and slow firing and underglazing and glazing and high firing. A consistent daily reminder that good things are made slow and steady, with care.
My intentionally slow process with clay, the tediously slow process of building a business, the reaction of these two drivers as they were forced to wait on the streets of Brooklyn: all little daily moments, reminders that we are in control of our emotions, not the other way around.
All it takes is adding a few tools to your Personal Peace Toolkit to begin the process of embracing the wait, instead of wallowing in it’s frustrations. This week we’ll be learning three ways to build patience into our days, to soften our hearts, and focus on our breath.
May we all have the space and tools to practice gentle patience.
May we all be the singing man in traffic.
In-person workshops are so fun, but if you don’t live in NYC or can’t fit a workshop into your schedule, you can bring some grounding peace and play right into your home with my mindful clay play at home kit <3
My messy studio photo this week is more production work for wholesale orders
The personal peace toolkit is your own catalog of accessible mindfulness techniques to fold into your life in 30 seconds, 5 minutes, and 10 minutes, bringing a little more calm to your days.
This week our practice is focused on building our patience practice, lightening our hearts, and focusing on our breath.
If you’re not already a paid subscriber, I hope you consider joining and building some peace and reflection into your life with me <3
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