Doing What I Love, Loving What I Do

Ceramic Vase by Rosie Warburton- 2011

The other day someone posted a blog on Your Turn Challenge Facebook page that was about working from the heart. Of course I totally resonated with it because this is what I have almost always done. It never made sense to me to be doing something I didn't love although I did try a few times.
 
My two main passions have always been art and music. My love of art eventually manifested as pottery and in my early 20's I apprenticed with a potter in Foster, Rhode Island. Then I took a break and had 4 boys pretty much one after the other. In my late 20's I bought a wheel and an electric kiln and set up a pottery studio in my basement. For the next 12 years my kids and my pottery were my life.

I also loved music and listened to it practically nonstop and played guitar and flute. I would never claim to be a musician- just someone who loved music and played it for my own enjoyment.

Over the course of time I got into a habit when I unloaded the kiln that seemed perfectly natural at the time but also might have foreshadowed a change in direction. When my pots came out of the kiln I would occasionally tap on a larger pot if I were suspicious that it might have a crack. If there was even the slightest crack, it would have a very dull sound but if there were none then the pot would have a clear ringing tone. I soon fell in love with the sound of the pots as much as their aesthetics and so I began setting up a little orchestra whenever I unloaded the kiln! Before they went to whomever they were going to I would set up all the larger pots on shelves- bowls, utility jars, and vases- according to their tones, then I would get two wooden spoons and I would play the pots. I could do this for long periods of time- I would usually have to force myself to stop eventually so I could go on to the next thing.

These days I won't buy wine glasses unless they have a nice ring to them. People probably think I'm crazy when they see me playing them in the store! Sometimes I tap them and they go right back on the shelf- other times I listen to them over and over. This morning I got up and set four crystal wine glasses on the kitchen table and proceeded to "play them" with chopsticks. That was my moring meditation- and in fact my evening meditation too!