Tension and Timing

As the GWYN Residency comes to a close, it feels more like a beginning than an ending and that is when I realized it is the end of the beginning. A few months ago I read a children's book with that title that followed an ant and a snail and their adventures together. The unlikely friends moved at differing paces and still got to the same places. Isn't that true of us all? Today, I took Eloise to a walk at the park and we found a snail in the dirt. As we walked home, I listened to an audio book, Gathering Moss by Robin Wall Kimmerer;  I am grateful for the tiny worlds beneath our feet. The pace at which I move and work is greatly affected by the presence of our child and yet I wouldn't trade it for anything. The laugh as she swung for the first time at the park today is a sound I hope to never forget. As I move forward in creating Gastropod, Eloise will continue to grow and change and the relationship I have with her and our daily routines will change too. That is part of the great tension of this life, the desire to do what we wish and the need to take care of other things. A friend quoted to me yesterday, "we can have all of the things but we cannot have them all at the same time". It is part of the creative process to trust the timing that is beyond our control.