Monday, August 25, 2008

Potential

I've been thinking a good bit about potential lately. Untapped potential, realized potential, unknown potential. My own potential to author two books in 6 months having never authored a book before (oh, for those of you who might not already know, I'm authoring a series of books on the "new" domesticity, starting with two books on Raising Chickens and Canning & Preserving; bee-keeping, goat-keeping, herbal products, cut flowers, making cordials and elixirs are all potential-again, that word!-topics for future books in the series).

Then I came across the first acorn of the season on our property. I found it in the driveway, directly in front of the tree festooned with Hell's Interior. Talk about potential. This tiny nugget holds the means of creating an enormous oak. Latent potential if there ever was any! 

As today is Monday, I'm thinking of potential projects for the week. I'm thinking of potential delicious meals and stirring conversations to enjoy. I'm thinking of the potential of having to fly through the remnants of Fay on my way to San Francisco Thursday for the Slow Food conference. I'm thinking of potentially meeting Alice Waters. I'm thinking of potentially dancing at a venue other than family weddings. Potential. What a motivator. 

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

So, how do you turn potential into positive results? What about the medical student who can't make herself sit down and study? I even wrote a poem on proctastination for extra credit in my Ethics class so that I didn't have to study for Biochemistry! And now I'm doing this!! What is wrong with this picture?!?! good luck in San Fran. b

Anonymous said...

What a wonderful post. My interest was piqued around the topics of your books given how excited some of my friends are to do these things (especially the urban chicken coops.)

& potential is something I'm reminded of every time I turn scraps of fabric or an old piece of clothing into something useful and pleasing. What a great way of thinking about it.