close knit notes - vol 12

on witnessing your partner finding their thing

Josh and I are not married, but I privately refer to him as my spouse. Sometimes, jokingly, I call him my “house spouse” which arose when he bravely left a job he’d worked for a decade to take time pursuing a craft that had long fascinated him.

Josh is a potter, and I have had the very pleasant experience of witnessing him become a potter over the last ~year. If you have fallen headfirst into a creative practice (as I am sure many of you reading this have), you will know what I mean. 

Especially in the first few months, his mind was completely preoccupied with pottery - it was all he wanted to talk about and all he wanted to spend his time doing. I think that there have been times in my life when I would have found this annoying or frustrating- “why are you talking about you all the time when we could talk about me?” I imagine a younger version of myself thinking when I am feeling particularly ungenerous.

But I didn't and don’t feel this way, observing Josh in his head first love of pott…