Actually an Artist

My daughter is now two and a half years old, which means she’s twice as likely to listen to my instruction and actually do what is requested. Though when your baseline is zero, that doesn’t mean much. This fact was more than enough encouragement for me, however, so last week I took her along with me to our local library’s makerspace to glaze some pieces I’d made a few weeks prior.

Juniper is quite taken these days with art and color and fine-motor-skills tasks, which made this an ideal environment for us both getting a little of what we want; I wanted to get my pieces in the next glaze firing, and she wanted to explore. She always wants to explore these days. It’s beautiful, refreshing, inspiring, and exhausting. Not to give too much away, but nothing was broken-not my pieces, nor anyone else’s in the shared space! Whew! Already a major win. The cherry on top was that we actually managed to get the three pieces glazed.

Juniper painted the bottoms of each piece really really well. She’d pick a spot then go over it again and again and again. I resorted to pouring bits of glaze out on other parts of the pot and spreading it from there, encouraging her to do the same. Sometimes she’d paint over the glaze I’d just spread, other times she contributed by spreading it out a little bit more. I let her pick between different glaze options that I could live with and look forward to seeing how her tastes turned out. It was 1000% a team effort in cocreation, me facilitating and getting out of the way, her enjoying the sensations of brush in hand, glaze, and time with mama. I’m sure once I see the finished pieces there will be beautifully colored spots and other more sparsely glazed parts. Those are where I did the glazing. I just can’t seem to figure out how much glaze to use for a well-glazed piece! It’s great Juniper was there to compensate for my glaze-stinginess. I’m sure the contrast of too much and too-little glaze will turn out beautiful in its unpredictability. Should be fun.

While painting and cleaning up with Juniper was fun, it was also such an important time for connecting and cooperating. I wouldn’t lie and say we’re in the easiest phase right now. Two and a half with her is soooooo much more challenging than that age was with our son, Theo. He was pretty low-key and happy. She is intense and passionate and inquisitive and ‘herself. She doesn’t sleep! It’s beautiful! And so hard to parent! But I needed the reminder of what is possible for us. Just glazing alone would have been (more) relaxing for sure, but connection really took it to the next-level as far as creative experiences go. Just like we mold and remold clay, so too are our relationships pliable and ever-changing. When fractures appear it’s almost never one-sided, though even in those situations, it’s important to recognize that we still have creative choices even in stepping away from a connection. Obviously, Juniper and I are really early into our relationship- she’s only 2 1/2! But I will need to form and reform myself as she grows and becomes even more herself in order to be more true to myself and to honor her growth and needs. Just as the glaze flows when fired, sometimes in ways we couldn’t have predicted, so too do relationships need to release shapes and reform for the people in the relationship to continue to serve one another. Even though I sometimes lament how a glaze turned out, I am reminded by potters with more experience than I that I can actually reglaze and try again. I actually haven’t done that, but just knowing that if I botch a glazing I can try again is SO liberating! We all have relationships in our lives we want to try again at or just do better by. I think the promise of resurrection in Christianity isn’t so much about an afterlife as much as it is about the possibilities for reconciliation in this life. We can hear about resurrection and reconciliation a hundred times, but until we start experiencing it for ourselves, it’s not got a whole lot of meaning. I’m grateful for opportunities to embody it, however small they are.

I leave you with some pictures of our escapade. Juniper was very helpful in cleaning up. A favorite activity at home is to swipe one of her wet wipes from the diaper bag and go around ‘wiping’ all the surfaces: the sides of the fridge, cabinets, front of the oven. Afterwards we went to preschool story time at the same library where they read ‘Hop on Pop’. Loved it. I hope you find new ways of seeing your relationships this week, whether it be to yourself, your community, nature, or your sense of the Divine. When we let go of control, a lot of beautiful things can happen.