Instant

Reason number 538 for my continual quest for more better meditation practises:
Being wide fucking awake at 1AM (and not wanting to be).

Coco is always thrilled to see me up at these obscene hours. Ya see, nighttime is her time and our wee cottage can get lonely for her at zero dark thirty. She comes to bed, climbs atop my supine self and commences with the bathing action. Clearly, her idea of socializing is somewhat different from my own.

Ah well, not like I was up for discussing the intricacies of Carolyn Chandler's work, Chomsky’s thoughts on the militarization of space or Nietzsche's scary-ass mustache with her AGAIN. We covered all that on my last sleep-free night.

Christopher Waldrop over at Freethinkers Anonymous reminded me of this bit of Willy Wonka wisdom:

Invention, my dear friends, is 93% perspiration, 6% electricity, 4% evaporation, and 2% butterscotch ripple.

Sadly, I think I’m fresh outta butterscotch ripple today.

I’m finding that, in my continuing search for truly first rate mushin and Mizu no Kokoro – a mind like still water: flowing, reflective and adaptive, I’ve actually been creating, not calm, not serenity but fresh, steep mountains to climb, demons to slay and general shit I gots to get done.

Fer instance, I remembered (and had dreamt about) my peaced out state of mind whilst sitting at my potter’s wheel, throwing bowls and, especially, plates.

Yesterday I finally pulled out my old wheel, began slaking/reclaiming the terra cotta that I have on hand and have been enjoying visions of grand times, playing in the mud. In this new effort, I won't be making DEEP, IMPORTANT art. Nope, I just wanna make some simple, pretty and functional forms. 

Girls just wanna have fun and mushin and shit, right? This is gonna be easy-peasy, right?

Not so much. I realized a few important things:

1) I’m afraid to fire up that desperately old kiln I have here at home. It’s probably safe but I’m afraid of burning down the house and not in a cool, Talking Heads kind of a way. So, at least for now, I won’t spark it up.
2) Though I used to enjoy mixin' up the magical medicine – glazes, I don’t want to do that here in Valhalla. All my oil and acrylic paints, the turpentine and linseed oils are enough toxicities for one houz. I don’t need barium, antimony, manganese, etc. dust floating about.
3) Playing in the mud is messy. There’s a lot of clean up and I HATE cleaning.

It’d be ideal to have someplace nearby where I could, a couple times a week, go for clay action thus not mucking up or, possibly, destroying mein Haus. I unleashed my google-fu and found Portland Pottery in Braintree – just one town south of me. The website says they offer classes. They’re not just a supply house. Awesome+! I figured they’d let me, for the price of a class, just come in to throw, glaze and fire. This would the simple solution to all my concerns!

Jen and I went down there yesterday morning to inquire and sign me up. As it turns out, only the Maine branch does classes BUT the Braintree locale sells premixed glazes AND will fire my work for me.

This takes care of two of my issues. The only hurdle left is the mud mess. Can I create an easily, quickly cleanable and contained space for clay here at home? This’ll take anticipation, planning and a bunch ‘o’ prep but YES.

Another thing it’s been a few years since I’ve thrown. I expect there’ll be a few frustrating sessions before I have any pots worth saving.

I was hoping for instant mushin (just add water!) but this is a journey. S'OK, I got nowhere else to be but right here in this moment.

Well we all shine on
Like the moon and the stars and the sun
Yeah we all shine on
On and on and on on and on
Instant Karma (We All Shine On) - Lennon/Ono with The Plastic Ono Band