Pottering About On Shifting Sands

Dear friend,

I read a Substack article—can’t recall whose—but it was a thoughtful piece on the benefits of pottering around.

Kevin, my brother, was a big potterer as a kid and, though we’ve not lived together for many years now, he’s still got the habit. You’d hear him shuffling papers and making things, arranging and tidying, just generally following his curiosity.

Of the two of us, Kevin, in the field of pottering, was the early adopter.

I designated today as a pottering day.

Still working, but rather than being relentlessly goal-oriented, I made a point of valuing periods where apparently little progress was to be made.

I worked on some online stuff and sat in the garden, checking on the plants.

Zara is here on a sleepover, and we went on an extra long walk. Just watching her, staying in communion with one another. Focusing on a meditation mantra and the flow of my breath, feeling the intricate processes of my body in motion.

Birds on the wing filling the air with melody.

While we potter, ideas are sending out tender shoots.

First fibre-fine threads form, and many don’t get much further than this. Some connect and weave into one another; tentative pathways form. Options and choices that weren’t evident previously swim into view. Maybe a half-glimpsed possibility catches your attention as ideas compost and out of muck—new life takes root.

Pottering doesn’t actually get in the way of the creative process.

It’s part of it.

Till tomorrow

Love
Mikey