My mug is a stream of glaze controlled by slip lines.

When I hold my mug, I pay attention to the flow of glaze around the various slip lines.   As this mug was being fired, the flat glaze liquifies and starts to flow. Each groove and raised slip line was intentionally applied to create a path for the glaze to dance on.  As the kiln cools, the liquid glaze is frozen in time.

This reminds me of days spent at the beach with our small children.

We live very close to a beach.  It is one of my favourite places to be.  We spent countless hours at this beach when our children were tiny, and we always made our way to the far side of the first beach at Crystal Crescent, so our kids could play in the little stream that ran into the ocean.  The beaches are cold here in Nova Scotia, but that little stream was always warm, and the kids could safely play in the sand and splash in the stream.

One of the kids’ favourite things to do was to try and dam up the stream.  They would pile rocks and make huge towers of sand to control the flow of the water - convinced that they could manipulate the forces of nature.  

Do we ever really grow up?

Do we spend too much time damming up streams and moving rocks in our life?

I spend too much time trying to control the “flow of water” in my life.  

We can try and control things for a while, but at some point, that rock pile will leak and it may make a bigger mess than if we had just left it alone.

If we listen closely, we can hear the hum of something bigger than us.  If we stop busy-ing ourselves we can feel it. We are invited to slow down and we can stop trying to control the tides in our lives.  It is in the quiet that we can see how the Maker is with us on this meandering journey of pain and joy.

Follow the slip lines on your mug.