What I'm Doing Now
(This is a now page, which I was inspired to create by the wondrous musician/author/speaker/netizen: Derek Sivers.)
Updated May 11th, 2026, from my pottery studio and home in rural Minnesota, with my wife Sienna and our young children: Stella (4) and Iris (2). It’s a brisk spring season, with days getting warmer and brighter.
Mother’s Day Birthday
Yesterday was my 38th trip around the Sun. Sharing this day with Mother’s Day, by sharing a big meal with friends and family, made me grateful to the point of tears. Sienna is the strongest woman I’ve ever known, and she is raising two confident, yet empathetic girls. They also love their grandmothers, who live close to us, spend time with us regularly, and play important mentoring roles in all of our lives.
Prayer
I'm not religious, but I was raised Catholic and went to Catholic school for about 16 years. Lately, I've been saying five prayers each morning, as part of my morning ritual: Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be, Serenity Prayer and Grace Before Meals. The words are so ingrained in my memory that I can say them as a short meditation, whether I'm alone in the studio or making breakfast for my daughters. It's a gratitude practice that pairs well with morning coffee, journaling and one passage from The Daily Pressfield, which I have read almost every morning for about 3 years. Highly recommend this book for anyone struggling daily to make sense of a professional creative career.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Mozart's story in, "Mastery" by Robert Greene is why I am diving into his work. I have been re-reading and/or listening to Mastery about once every 2-3 months for about 5 years now. Mozart's dedication to curiously following his art, and not the opinions of social pressures, resulted in some of the most remarkable music the world has ever known. Follow my fascination playlist at MOZART BANGERS.
Venus Mugs
The newest planet to emerge from my kiln was the "Venus Mug" that I’ve been testing for years, unsuccessfully until now. Gratitude fills my heart as almost all of the mugs sold and will ship to generous customers today, from Kentucky to Bahrain. Because some of these mugs took 5 kiln firings, I won’t be able to duplicate them exactly in the future.
In Person Pottery Sales
May 23rd - 24th will be only the 4th time in 6 years that we have opened our pottery studio to the public. But my lower priced pottery sales (this one is a $25 sale) are meant to reward people for making the effort to travel here, while saving money, time and materials on packing and shipping. They have been delightfully successful. I’m even presenting to our small City Council in June, asking permission to change our business license to allow us to host these up to once a month.
Archery
Although I’ve shot about 10,000 arrows with my recurve bows (about 80% right handed, 20% left handed), archery took a backseat during the intense sleep deprivation of double toddlers, accompanied by business ups and downs. Perhaps writing this will help me shoot archery weekly or more, with morning coffee, on the land behind our pottery studio. Refocusing eyes to a target 20 yards down, with perfect posture and pulling (instead of pushing) muscles helps to reverse the damage to my often hunched posture that can happen with pottery and computer work.
Social Media @cherricopottery
Deleting all social media scrolling ability from my in-pocket phone has been wonderful. I finally deleted the YouTube app, which was the one nagging scroller that remained as a non-learning time-suck. Years of practicing news hygiene has also helped me be a better person and clearer thinker. I love Ryan Holiday’s idea that one of the worst ways to be an informed citizen is watching breaking news: “We are distracted by breaking news when really we should be drinking deeply from the great texts of history.”
cherricopottery.com/newsletter is the best place to get new pottery updates for free. But if you would like to follow my social media, where I still regularly post random updates, you can find my everywhere @cherricopottery and links consolidated at cherricopottery.com/about.
Thank you Tim Ferriss for showing me this great quote by Neale Donald Walsch, which I put onto this mug.