At the center. Pottery as metaphysics. Centering. How all these thoughts and experiences create a sense of an enormous cosmic unity, a sense of a quiet inner unity, a unity within me, child of that vast single god-sea, that unity, wherein we swim.

The creative spirit creates with whatever materials are present. With food, with children, with building blocks, with speech, with thoughts, with pigment, with an umbrella, or a wine glass or a torch. We are not craftsmen only during studio hours. Any more than a man is wise only in his library. Or devout only in a church. The material is not the sign of the creative feeling for life: of the warmth and sympathy and reverence which foster being; techniques are not a sign; art is not the sign. The sign is the light that dwells within the act, whatever its nature or its medium.

A kind of radiance, an emanation, a freedom, something that fills our hearts with joy and gratitude no matter how it may strike our judgment! There is something within man that seeks this joy. That knows this joy. Joy is different than happiness. I am not talking about happiness. I am talking about joy. How, when the mind stops its circling, we say Yes. Yes to what we behold.
 - from Centering In Pottery, Poetry and the Person by M.C. Richards. M.C. Richards was a deep thinker on the intersection between spirituality and creativity. Here’s a short video of one of her workshops.

It’s a great relief to me to know that I can actually be creative and be happy at the same time.
- James W. Hall, poet, fiction author.