A Field Guide to Now: Notes on Mindfulness and Life in the Present Tense by Rosalie Christina

Author:Rosalie, Christina [Rosalie, Christina]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780762787319
Publisher: Globe Pequot
Published: 2012-09-03T21:00:00+00:00

The Moment at Hand: Hunger

I am at the pottery studio. The light is yellow, the room whirring with wheels, clay slick on my hands. I am learning how to center and to be centered. I am throwing my weight forward from my hip through my elbow into the clay circling under my palms, until it becomes even, and steady. Until the hunk of clay under my palms is round and still at the center of the wheel. Then it is ready to be drawn upwards and outwards into the shape it will become.

This requires unwavering commitment.

Once you’ve taken hold of the clay and have begun to draw it up, you can’t stop, or second-guess, or let go, or wonder. You just have to persist. You have to take the clay and steadily move it upwards, concentrating only there, on the lines formed by pulling the clay slowly toward the heavens, the metal of the wheel circling under the outside edge of your palm. You have to take the clay between the forefinger of your left hand and the bent knuckle of the forefinger on your right hand and bring it up in one steady fluid motion.

This is damn hard. Second-guessing ruins everything. Any pause, distraction, or hesitation will immediately be evident. Your throw lines will become irregular, or worse, the entire piece will suddenly jilt off center and begin to flap and flail like a dervish might, until it invariably collapses.

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