What makes this observation remarkable, especially from Grandma Moses, is her refusal to distinguish between circumstance and choice—she doesn't console us that we can *overcome* our conditions, but rather insists we're always already making something from them, whether we acknowledge it or not. There's no waiting period, no magical moment when we finally gain control; the shaping happens now, in small decisions both noticed and invisible. A factory worker deciding to paint on canvas scraps in the evening, as Moses herself did, wasn't transcending her poverty so much as declaring that her life's texture was being woven from her own hand, not handed down complete. That refusal to separate ourselves from our circumstances—to stop waiting for permission or better conditions—is what gives the statement its quiet force.