Salt mines

There are now 500 lbs. of Himalayan salt blocks, in our garage’.  A year ago, I would never have pictured those words in a sentence together.  How wonderfully peculiar, and unexpected, life can be! And… salty at times.

Fun fact: Himalayan salt panels are sourced in (drum roll)… you guessed it, Pakistan.  Doesn’t quite have the same ring to it, right?  Humans are so wired to be judgmental. It takes strength to overcome that.  Imagine our delight in hefting these ridiculously heavy boxes from the Amazon hub, to find…

almost all of the gorgeous blocks we plan to build a salt panel art piece with, were broken.  They had been packed in a box, with bubble wrap lining the box. Why not a wooden crate?  It had big red stickers saying, ‘FRAGILE – DO NOT DROP’ but…

if you’ve ver seen people load things onto a plane or in a Post Office mailroom,  you know that humans don’t heed warnings on stickers.  So, the drudgery of return authorizations, and sending back hundreds of pounds of salt blocks, begins –

I’m sure the delivery people were swearing all the way back to the truck.  And, we are delayed in the crafting of our salt panel.  Delays, are not denials; but they can feel like them, in the moment.  We’ll get what we want – just, not in the way we ‘thought’ we would.  We might even think of even better ideas for it, while we’re waiting! Hmmm….

Some people say ‘everything happens for a reason’,

I don’t buy that.

We CREATE reasons. We turn calamities into opportunities.  We rise to the occasion. We take lemons, and make limoncello.  Is it easy? No. It’s necessary.  I told Seane Corne once (https://seanecorn.com check out this amazing human) that, I did not think I was cut out to be a yoga teacher. I have so much anger, I said.  ‘But anger, can be at the heart of creativity’, she told me. If we weren’t annoyed or outraged by something, there would be no reason to create change.’

That realization hit me hard.

Like the oyster getting an irritating grain of sand … and turning it into a pearl.  I hope this studio can be a place, where people can get the support they need,  to create what they are here to create – in the shape of sculpting and living their best life.

To make pearls, or limoncello, or be phoenixes rising from the ashes.  The studio will have functional art pieces to inspire.  The REAL masterpieces, are the people who come through the door.