April was long, yet at the same time it is hard to believe May is half over. I have been traveling for the better part of a month. No creative project has been started; we’ll see what happens…
On April 1st, I decide to devote my creative work (well most of it) to a color that calms me. A little tranquility was needed because sleep, something I have always taken for granted, had been “shallow” since mid January. I had been struggling with the use of a CPAP machine, having been diagnosed (in late December) with sleep apnea. I am one of those people who has this sleep issue, not because of being overly heavy, but just because I have a small airway. The lack of sleep, in combination with the anxiety and fear that I feel due to what has been taking place in our country, was starting to weigh me down.
Blue, and shades of it, has long been my best-loved color. Although I tend to wear a lot of black, I have always found this color calming. Maybe this is because swimming is one of my favorite activities. Shades of blue can be found in many bodies of water. Where there is water, I can swim. On the very first day I began to devote myself the the immersion of blue: my first fired pot, from pottery class, was painted various hues of my favorite color:
Although I felt peaceful after my class, the ongoing news (of our economy spiraling; public institutions being dismantled; DOGE having their hands on everything; good works being defunded…) was not helping my overall frame of mind. Saturday, April 5, I did two things that helped my mood: the first activity was joining a group that was removing invasive plants in our area; it felt good to be working outside and focusing on something different than politics! The second thing I did was join the “Hands Off Movement”, a peaceful rally in our red county. Just as in February, standing among strangers united for a common cause, I felt empowered. That evening, the necklace I started in March (not blue), was finished.
On April 7, my husband suggested we visit the Smithsonian. We hadn’t been in years. When my spouse presented me with this opportunity, I jumped at the chance. In March, the President Of The United States announced an executive order to try and make changes at the Smithsonian Institution; it was important to me to see these places, once again, before the “restoring of Truth and Sanity to American History”. The first museum we visited was the National American Museum of History; this had always been my favorite museum. Then we went to the National Museum Of African American History; the last time we were in Washington, DC, was shortly after it opened, and it was hard to get into. Unfortunately the day was getting late, so we only stayed at the second museum for a short while. As we left D.C. I was overwhelmed by how far we had come as a country and, at the same time, was filled with trepidation that our predecessors mistakes might be covered up.
April 15th, I received my second finished piece from my pottery class:
My plan for my creative project in April, was to immerse myself in learning how to make a bezel from start to finish: soldering bezel wire to a metal base, sawing the form out, filing, sanding and finally setting a blue stone. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any bezel wire.
Instead of jewelry work in the afternoons, I decided to look at a file box my father had kept for me. The early years took me back to first grade; this was the era of “Free To Be You And Me”( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_to_Be…_You_and_Me). I found solace in reliving my younger years. A story was written and published in mid April:
https://tell-me-your-story.org/2025/04/21/the-dabbler/
Many years ago my sister had been on a trip around the world and brought beads back. Then, a few years back, she gave them to me. At night, I worked on a necklace for my eldest sibling. The stones I chose to work with were blue; they were hard to work with as they were chipped stone of different sizes and shapes.
Meanwhile, current events continued to weigh me down. In mid April, I awoke to the news that the president decided to sunset all environmental regulations made in the last 100 years:
Presidential Action
Presidential Action more easily explained
https://www.npr.org/2025/04/17/nx-s1-5366814/endangered-species-act-change-harm-trump-rule
Mentioning this to my husband, he politely told me he wasn’t in the mood to hear any type of political news. Respecting his request, my rant remained silent. In fact, I tried hard not to talk about anything political for almost a week…
The 4th Tuesday in April, during pottery class, I received my finished vase and painted a large pinch pot (see pictures at the bottom of the story):
At the end of that week, we spent two days with our youngest daughter Appalachia. I had barely listened to the news for 5 days. Time was spent in nature and I felt happy and relatively calm.
The day we arrived home from our visit with our daughter, we found out one of our own was touched by DOGE. A job that was a volunteer position, where only a stipend was being paid, was dismantled. I was seeing red! I was angry, but at the same time so sad. Why were good works the target of our new government? What happened to empathy?
I packed for a three day trip to Toronto, the day after the news hit home. While packing, my AirPods played the streaming sit-in of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Sen. Cory Booker. Realizing there were still people who could make a differences, pushing against the destruction of the United States, relieved some of the feelings of the day before…they were making “Good Trouble”.
The last three days of April, I traveled to and from Canada, with one day in between (to attend a remembrance for a family friend who had died). The necklace was finished the night before I left for the memorial service:
The large blue pinch pot made and the stages:
My Year Of Creativity
January https://tell-me-your-story.org/2025/02/01/my-year-of-creativity/
February https://tell-me-your-story.org/2025/03/07/my-year-of-creativity-2/
March: https://tell-me-your-story.org/2025/03/30/my-year-of-creativity-march-2025/
“The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand. It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience….. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.”
– Carl Sagan
Tell Me Your Story 
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