Editing

I’ve been thinking about editing lately. What one adds to their life or takes away, how things shift and change over time.  For me, each year has something new. Sometimes it’s large and life-altering, sometimes its smaller like a new hobby or a clutch piece of furniture.

When my kids were younger, I had this thought that our home, our lives would eventually be “settled.”  Like, you know, grown up.  We’d stop moving, stop focusing on renovations large and small, constantly changing out kids clothes/cribs/beds/dressers as they grew. We’d stop setting up to live, and we would focus on actually living. 

“Actually living” felt abstract those years when work was the least important thing, overshadowed frequently and fervently by the always-urgent life-sustaining basics that babies and young children demand. Socializing was built around the children and not always worth the effort.

My house gets edited seasonally since we live in a home with no closets.  Coats and boots and gloves and hats all come out and live exposed in our front hallway from November to April, then they go back to their storage places and we breathe fresh air into the previously cluttered entrance.

I’ve realized that constant changing is in fact actually living. Slowly, each year as we edit and grow, we come more and more into ourselves.

In making art, there is constant editing. A touch deeper of a red tone to add depth, bright whites to bring an image forward. As we shape pottery we’re constantly flexing the clay pushing walls in or out, using a tool to create a sharp edge or straight line. Perhaps a rib to achieve the curve we envision in our minds, something more difficult to define than a straight line.  

In running a small business, there’s always editing and changing of processes.  Day-to-day activities change, staff needs change, customers desires change.  Our partnerships grow. We edit our studio, our ways of working, our lives to grow and improve constantly. 

Little adjustments: new shelves, a fresh coat of paint, moved around furniture, happen more frequently, always changing and improving our experiences.

A new favorite restaurant, new walking routines. New friendships while letting go of those that don’t serve are all changes that can improve our lives by small degrees.

I invite you this week to think about what you would you like to add in or take out?  An artistic practice or more frequent time with friends? Perhaps a new sport or activity?

If you don’t know what to edit, the act of doing something, almost anything, can jog ideas into motion.  Consider joining us for one of our Friday Night Classes this spring for a jolt of inspiration!