So perhaps just a touch out of impulse, Ber and I signed up for ceramics class at the community center. It did wipe out half my earnings for my summer job but I think this is something that I had been wanting to do for some time! Ber could not make it for the first lesson so I had to go on on my own :(
Thankfully, met a bunch of friendly fellow learners. And it just felt really nice to just learn something for the sake of learning it and enjoying the process of it without having to worry about grades or assessments or what not. Although it did occur to me how much pressure I'm so used to putting on myself that even in such a leisurely class I do think about whether I am progressing fast enough! I'm going to learn to just fully enjoy the process and progress! After all, it is something quite new and different from the way I usually work with clay.
It is definitely therapeutic feeling the changing shape of the clay and watching it spin and form fine little spirals on the top of the lump of clay!
After years of hearing and reading about the Biblical analogy of the Potter and the clay, it makes a lot of difference actually experiencing throwing ceramics.
The first lesson focused just on preparing the clay and centering it. The clay needs to be cut into thin slices and soaked in water to make it soft and mouldable. Then, it take pressure and a precise way of manipulating the lump of clay to center it on the potters wheel and prepare it for shaping.
Being someone drawn to the more poetic side of things, my mind goes to how we need to remain mouldable and humble ourselves to be shaped by the Lord. And then we need to constantly remember our focus and stay on the path. And that is surely going to involve some pressure at some point! But from here, we start to see a lump of clay, perhaps messy like mine, get shaped and transformed!
Looking forward to the next class!
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