In the studio of the master potter, the buzz of daybreak was beginning to fill the atmosphere.

In the dim glow of sunlight cautiously peeking in through the crack beneath the barn door, the tools lay in anticipation. The wheel stood ready, and plenty of clay was gathered around prepared for the day’s work ahead.

Darkness covered the face of the earthen floor.

Samantha the potter lived in a cottage just next door. Her cottage was lovely, neat and tidy, well organised. Everything was in its place and everything had a place to be in.

The artwork on the walls was specially selected, just the right picture in just the right location. The sculptures and vases on pedestals and on the porticoes and back porch were placed with grace and poise.

But in her studio, things were quite different.

Whenever Samantha puttered around, crafting pottery, the studio became a mess. Today was no different: As Samantha arrived, turned on the lights, and took up her tools, the studio gradually transformed into a chaotic whirlwhind of activity. The studio started out clean, formless and void of mess. Gradually it was filled with scraps of clay flying left, sprays of water flying right and bright colours flying centre. The ground was soon covered in piles of miscellaneous pottery supplies. The whole place was turning into a mess, and an outsider looking in the window could easily have seen just this mess, and missed what was happening at the heart of it.

Samantha was working on a very particular jar. This one was going to be a work of art, unique, unlike any she had created before. She had selected a quite ugly lump of clay. But she saw what the clay could be if she crafted it into what the clay was always meant to be. All the while, the clay continued to splatter all over the studio.

The tools moved under the guidance of her expert hand, shaping the artwork at the centre of the studio. She fired up the kiln and baked the pot. Then she painted it with strokes of perfect pastel colour.

Finally, after a long time, the work was done.

The Studio was in a state of absolutely unrecognisable mess.

Messier than it had ever been before.

As messy as things can get.

But at the heart, there stood a completed work of art.

The pot was beautiful to look at, and functional. But in the Studio it still blended in and was hard to make out amidst the clutter. It was only when Samantha picked it up and carried it across to her cottage, that it was clear just how lovely this pot was.

Samantha carried it to the spot she had picked out just for this pot, and gently placed it down. It was now not only beautiful, but neat and tidy and surrounded by other neat, tidy, things. All the mess of the Studio was far away as the pot began to blend in and become part of the homely and inviting arrangement of objects in the master potter’s cottage.

And as the Sun began to set on a lovely summer day, Samantha went back to the studio, and cleaned it up, and organised it, ready to create another work of art tomorrow.