Yesterday, I gave myself some time to reflect on all that I have been doing. I was able to open the windows and listen to one of the flocks of starlings that came by for a respite in our wonderful oak tree. The starlings have been coming in for a week or so now. I am noticing them more and more… {Just the other night a huge group came through. It was just me and my son in the kitchen. They just keep coming and they covered our house and all our trees. We ran out to the porch together listening to their song and then watched them as they did their flying dance and moved on} …a lovely sign that spring is on her way.
I have come back around again. I see new fresh growth that I hadn’t been able to notice or truly taken in until I allowed myself back here in a much-needed place….of slowing. I have visited with SLOW before. As is with this life, I learn new lessons more and more as I revisit certain things in my life. Inevitably, life has me coming back around to something that while being so familiar, is yet still also new and different at the same time. Like some sort of strange déjà vu.
I have been going at quite a pace lately and it seems I had whipped myself into such a frenzy 
that I’d almost forgotten how to slow down. This is part of my dance, my story. I had to take a breath and realize I had been letting my inner critic and drama queen drive my car for a little bit and they almost crashed it. Even when I was telling myself to stop, my inner critic and drama queen were scaring me into beleiving that if I slowed down for even a second I might be in danger of turning back into an older vision of myself. It was like I was having a little bit of a nightmare, the kind where you have trouble waking yourself up. But thankfully I did! My incrediable mister and several close friends were able to help shake me awake enough for me to see that what I needed to do was to take a minute, a day to slow down. I have just been so scared to be any former version of myself. I’ve been growing by leaps and bounds in the last couple of years. And things are finally starting to take root. It’s all so new and I am still very green and so it was easy to fall asleep at the wheel and let my inner critic and drama queen drive for a little bit. Thankfully though I have woken up and kicked them to the back seat. I handed my drama queen a cup of breathe. I explained that there is to be no back seat driving or talking, not even a peep. And I am also going to pay it forward… as I encourage you to do the same every now again. Take a minute to check in with yourself and give yourself a break every now and again. It will make all the difference.
Ironically, or not so ironically, in my last firing, I had a few small mishaps as happens to all ceramic artists. With that comes the growth, the lessons and the gifts. So this firing I was gifted a breathe mindfulness mug which I most certainly needed. This mug’s handle had cracked while I was cleaning it 
after the bisque fire. I was hoping I could repair it with mender and that it would come out of the glaze firing good as new. No such luck, clearly it was meant to be mine. While at first I was a little upset that I couldn’t add it to the shop. I came to realize that it was a gift for me. A gift so that I would slow down and “breathe” myself and have a mindfulness moment which have been a bit lacking lately.
I am pleased to announce that not only do I have a new batch of things coming to the shop but also have totally redesigned and relaunched my website. At 10am today some more mindfulness mugs, a few magic spoons and new photo note cards of mindfulness moments will be arriving in the shop.
Hope you will make some time in your day to stop by for a visit.