‘Paciencia y barajar,” / Patience and shuffle the cards Miguel de Cervantes wrote, a long time ago, in the early seventeenth century. I think of it as watching and waiting. We must learn to observe, to stand still and watch the world around us. Who knows what lies there, just beneath the surface, waiting for us to find it?
We know our work is lonely and we thrive in the loneliness of the blank page, the blank screen. We stare at the water’s surface and wait and watch and then we shuffle the cards, the keys, the letters on the page, and something emerges. What will it be?

   Carpe diem / seize the day: with the moment seized, we have time now to think, to polish, to work at it until it is ready. And yes, there is pride in that amber eye, pride and a sense of satisfaction.
We know our work is never done. We worry at it, work around it, gnaw it as a dog gnaws at a bone. Little children gathered round our grandma’s stove as the cookies cook we ask impatiently “are they ready now?”
Impatience is our enemy. We must wait in silence: wait and watch. Sooner or later that silver flash of inspiration will light up whatever page we happen to be decorating.