Hello everyone! This is Bizen Bozu.
Today's post is more for my own sake, so it might be a bit incoherent and hard to follow.
Regardless, there is something I didn't want to forget, so I'm putting it down here today.
First of all, it started quite unexpectedly when I was blankly looking through my past blog posts.
I intended to look up how to make this sake cup, but for some reason, I ended up reading my old entries instead.
Man, looking back at them is pretty embarrassing (laughs).
"Huh? Did I write this?" "Oh, this piece turned out well."
The voices from the past made me feel all sorts of strange emotions.
It was also a good change of pace with quite a few discoveries.
Lately, I’ve been feeling a bit stiff and holding back, so I’m going to write down whatever comes to mind just to blow off some steam.
Well, all in all, I decided that I should "just go with the flow and be free."
Seeing my old posts was one reason, but there’s another factor too.
I was talking to a certain artist and looking at their work, and I realized, "Ah, I've really been overthinking things."
In my mind, I had this image of evolution as walking along a path.
An image of constantly pushing through, overcoming obstacles, charging forward, and becoming sharper.
But I started to think that maybe that's not it at all.
I’ve updated my perspective to one where a 3D object gradually expands, like a sphere growing layer by layer.
Charging forward and becoming sharp started to feel cramped, and I felt the path narrowing.
If I find myself suddenly envying my past self, is that really the direction I should be heading?
Thinking about all this, I decided to try and take it easy.
Phew. Even that sentence, "I decided to try and take it easy," was something I couldn’t bring myself to write until recently.
It felt too simple, too soft—something I really wanted to say, but couldn't.
It’s what I realized while talking to that ceramic artist: "Simplicity is difficult."
Whether it's pottery, writing, mindset, attitude, or just how you live your life—making things simple is the hardest part.
It feels like a dizzying labyrinth where I’m aimlessly retracing the path I’ve been sprinting along until now.
I think it takes many times more courage than just tensing up and pushing forward.
I’ll do my best to take it easy!
