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Spring 2026 -- From Wabi-Sabi to Centering
In our exploration of wabi-sabi, we learned to welcome imperfection, irregularity, and the beauty of what is unfinished. We softened our grip on polish and allowed process to guide us. Wabi-sabi taught us to trust what emerges. This term, we turn toward centering. If wabi-sabi helped us accept the wobble, centering asks us to understand the axis. What allows a work — and a person — to remain upright while in motion? Imperfection without grounding becomes chaos; grounding without flexibility becomes rigidity. Between them lies balance — steady, responsive, and alive. Centering is not about control. It is about alignment and return. "I have found that Centering, like clay, … bears the future within it. For it contains a space for ongoing development and differentiation. In other words, it proves to be an open image, a vessel, holding a content that is life itself." ~~ M.C. Richards
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Every other Thursday Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84257050840 Meeting ID: 842 5705 0840 |
Centering Concepts:
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Centering in the Enso Circle
This term in the Enso Circle, we’ll be exploring the concept of centering — inspired by M.C. Richards’ book Centering in Pottery, Poetry, and the Person. At its core, centering is the practice of returning to the inner place from which authentic work emerges. In creative practice, it’s easy to drift toward surface concerns: productivity, refinement, repetition, expectations (our own or others’). Over time, even experienced artists can feel stuck — not because they lack skill, but because they’ve moved slightly away from the living center of their work. Centering is not about slowing down for its own sake, nor is it about abandoning discipline. Instead, it’s about alignment. It invites us to reconnect breath, body, intention, and material. It asks us to notice when we are pushing and to consider what might happen if we listened instead. For Continuing Residents especially, centering offers a steady axis within long-term creative growth. It supports experimentation without panic, pauses without guilt, and shifts in direction without self-doubt. In the Enso Circle — our creative commons — centering becomes a shared practice. We witness one another returning to that inner place of clarity and drawing from it again. Download: Using Centering in Three Ways to Get Unstuck Download: A Centering Meditation THE ENSO CIRCLE
Continuing Residents Centering Framework Balance • Axis • Self-Trust Download these Principles for centering your work 1. The Core Before form rises, something must hold.
The core is not the most visible element — it is the most stabilizing one. 2. The Axis Every piece has an unseen vertical line.
If this piece began to wobble, what would correct it? 3. Balance Balance is not symmetry. It is relationship.
What might happen if I stop trying to “fix” and instead adjust? 4. Rhythm & Return Centering is not a one-time act.
Choose one small, repeatable action to return to when the spin begins. 5. Self-Trust Self-trust is staying with the form long enough to understand it.
If no one were going to see this, would I make the same decision? |
NOTE: You do not need to purchase M. C. Richards’ Centering in Pottery, Poetry, and the Person to participate in this term — we will explore the principles together — but it has been one of my beloved creative guides for more than thirty years, and I return to it often. ~~Lyn
CONTINUING RESIDENTS' ZOOM CALENDAR
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