On the long flights across the Atlantic and then across Canada, I recollected some advice I got many years ago: my pottery teacher asked me what I intended to do with a newly glazed bowl (a rather nice one, if I say so myself). Originally I had thrown 8 bowls in wet clay, only for Peter to dismiss 4 of them ('a mean lip', a full hip', ' a lack of form' among the sharply observed criticisms). The next week, in the first firing, he dismissed another 2; and when 2 emerged from the second firing in the kiln, another was rejected.
"So, what will you do with the sole survivor?", he asked.
Before I could answer, he gave me his advice: let it go - give it away. Why? Because holding onto it would only distract from throwing the next pot, from 'living in the moment'.
Sister Stan expresses a similar sentiment: 'The real measure of life is not whether we have lived the length of our days, but whether we have lived the breadth and depth of our days - whether we have lived life to the full' Holding on to the past and fretting about the future distracts from living life to the fullest in the present.
Now, what pots can I let go of today?
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