The whole time I was working on my new book, the pen cooperated with me. It was fidgety and just wanted me to hold it.

A few times, I thought the book was finished, but then life kept coming at me, and it seemed there was still more to say.

When Mom died last July, I believed that was how the book would end, and I planned to include mom’s beautiful letter as an appendix.

I kept writing, and had other reasons not to include mom’s words this time.

Then one day I wrote a piece called The End, and I thought that was a fitting place to stop.

The pen would practically dance on my nightstand until I picked it up to see what it had to say.

Once I finally sent the book off to the printer in Colorado, the pen no longer begged to be held.

Every creative expression comes in its own time.

What I have right now are a lot of ideas and plans.

When the camera or video camera, the pottery wheel, paintbrush, tablet or pen call to me, I will find out what message they have to convey. I will do that thing until I stop it to do something else.

Pottery is a long process for me, because I am not yet self sufficient. I rely on someone with a kiln. A year ago, I started to learn to throw pots on a borrowed wheel.

Today I got a new batch of pots from their glaze firing, and I was disappointed with the results. I had an expectation for what they would look like, and they just didn’t look the way I thought they would. I layered different glazes, which got a little thick, and obfuscated the fish carvings underneath. I told my son that the glaze looked like melted chewing gum.

It wasn’t until I was photographing the pieces later, that I began to see them for what they were, without the lens of expectation, and I saw that some of the disappointments were actually beautiful.

Imperfections show that these are handmade objects, and this, to me, is the point. I could buy dishes from a retail store, and they would be much more consistent and blemish free.

I love to see the brushstrokes in a painting, and I appreciate the variation and visible process in pottery as well.