“It is not difficult to make things; what is difficult is putting ourselves in the state of mind to make them.” – Constantin Brâncuși
I have, more than once, been asked, while working on my pots, how is it that I have so much patience. To sit for hours on end busy and preoccupied, in a seemingly repetitive and monotonous motion, focused on your work, seems, at least from the outside, an exhausting, boring, sometimes even tormenting activity.
In reality, what is truly central in pottery is not necessarily patience but, first and foremost, a permanent inner dialogue. Patience, as it appears to those around, is only a consequence of this dialogue. The more sincere and authentic this dialogue is, the deeper the state you manage to achieve.
There is so much to say about the quality of this dialogue. However, I will only mention one aspect. The cultural level. The sum of the books read and, above all, understood, the sum of the encounters with special people, thirsty for knowledge more than for the mercantile aspects of existence, tormented by the great questions of life, always in search of meaning. Most certainly, the quality of these experiences will be reflected in the quality of this ceaseless inner dialogue.