Celebrating abundance

I am so grateful for the friends and strangers who support my pottery work.
And I have been blessed by some unusual happenings that have helped me through the last lean times.

I received a refund check from my health insurance for having paid more than my required deductible.  Yay.  To the bank, cha-ching.  Of course it was like an Income Tax Refund, just my money that they had borrowed for a little while.  But in this case, I didn't expect it at all.  And the double blessing was that I didn't have to fight for it through customer service!

One of my sons helped me be able to continue living where I now do.  I am so grateful.

On Saturday, I offered to give a replacement mug to a dear customer when she told me the handle is beginning to break on her original one.  I've never heard of a process of breaking, and would have loved to see how it happened (usually they come off in one fell swoop), but I didn't want her to have to return with it. Usually a drop against stone is required for my handles to break.  But the construction is my responsibility, so I gave her a new one.  Fortunately I make things in a series, and there was one left of that design and color.

And when I had to postpone my yard sale because a flood was expected (which didn't arrive until the next day) one friend just handed me a greenback and said she hoped this would help me get to Indiana to see my youngest son's graduation.  She insisted.  I told her the yard sale would happen after I returned, and she had credit toward it...and she made some gesture about a coffee mug.  Ah, I thought, I do have mugs!

I am fortunate in being able to place a few of my pots in the Black Mountain Center for the Arts office.  We will both benefit if anyone wishes to buy them (including the monarch one above.)


I am one of the featured potter-bloggers on Pottery Making Blog for April HERE.  So perhaps a new reader or two has come by here from that link. Hi and welcome and hope you comment so I can get to know you!

As we were closing up the Mud Buddies booth on Saturday (and I hadn't sold anything) a woman came up and asked about a specific color of glaze.  Could I make some cups for her in that color, in such and such design?  Of course, I said.  And I quoted her a price that she immediately liked.  She's another vendor at the Tailgate Market.  Many of our sales are between the other vendors.

So today I threw the cups for her.  They will go through the process of firing and glaze kilns, and maybe be ready in a few weeks.

It's all a delightful path, where unexpected things happen.  I call myself a hobbyist, or a studio potter, not a production potter.

Linda, a fellow blogger, wrote that she wanted one of my tumblers if I didn't sell it Saturday.  So it's on it's way to her.

What I have to remember, I say to myself, is that there is abundance in my life.  The dollar sign as a total at the bottom of a spread sheet does not represent that abundance (at least by itself).

I have never gone to bed hungry.
I have plenty of love from many friends and family.
I have health care to meet my needs.
I have transportation that is mostly reliable (though probably so antiquated that my 19 year old car will soon be considered one of those vintage antiques).
I have fresh air to breath.
The water which comes out of the taps is hot and cold, and is drinkable.
I have an internet connection to you...people all over the world, as my weekly Sepia Saturday post proves to me.
I have responsibilities to 2 cats, my community, my studio, the people I love...and share so much of my life.
I may be wearing un-stylish clothes, but they are comfortable, and mostly fit me.
I have shoes to walk in.
My furniture is old and scratched and sags (don't say anything here about my body!) but it functions for the purpose it was intended.
I can see and hear, and walk and type, and talk and listen...so many blessings that not everyone has.

When I rant about Mother's Day, I know it's just letting off steam.  My three grown sons will think about me at least once, and probably try calling late in the day to say hi.  And we'll talk about whatever interests we have in common these days.