Repeat and repeat again...

Watching my 15 month old son obsessively practise climbing up on a chair, turning around to sit, get down and then do it all over and over and over again has reminded me how important persistence and repetition is to learning a new skill. It's so easy to get frustrated in the studio when work doesn't come out right the first time. Or the second time. Or the third time. Problems with firings. Problems with glazes. Sometimes I want to give up. But watching Eli struggle and fall only to try again reminds me that this is the only way to grow. One day he's climbing up a short step, a few days later it's the chair on the porch. Today he climbed up the steps to the big slide at playgroup and slid down all by himself yelling wheeee!!!! I'm going to try to remember this as I make new work and start getting ready for summer shows. Just keep trying and remember that someday what I'm struggling with today will seem easy, to be replaced by new challenges.