It’s Sunday evening! How did I get here?  It’s kind of like, sometimes, when I’m driving…I arrive at my destination without a single clue about what I’d missed. Which route did I take? How can I switch to automatic pilot without actually deciding to?  I just pull out of my drive, intent to get “there” and when I land, well…It’s just a blur. I really have to work on that. It can’t be safe, right? And not only that, I am just giving the moments of my life away…to the cloud.

I have spent the day in overdrive…my head on a swivel…going from one task to the next, working my way around a big circle…dabbling in the kitchen, doing laundry…OH! I forgot to feed the dogs. Brittany spent the night last night. It was so great to see her in the kitchen. I love to cook so when Brittany is home…its BREAKFAST time! Love that!

Next, it was time to go to my studio and get some work done. Someone had found my business on the internet and asked if I could repair a stained glass panel that his mother had made. He said that his grandson had broken it with a golf ball. Thankfully, I had the glass to match the broken pieces and was able to help him. He dropped it off yesterday and I really wanted to get it done and back to him as soon as I could.  As I was working on it, I felt that same sense of urgency that I’d felt all morning…and it was self-inflicted. I hadn’t even taken the time to look at this piece that his mother had made. Clearly, it meant the world to him…and he had trusted me to make it beautiful and whole again. After replacing the broken pieces and repairing some other things to make sure that it would hang securely, I applied the black patina to create the perfect contrast between the glass and the solder. Inspecting every last inch of the panel, I saw every imperfection. That’s not a comment about finding faults…it’s more an acknowledgement that this gift from his mother to him was a handmade expression of love. I sure could feel that as I worked on it. I felt a sense of pride and relief, too…that after all of these years of trial and error, of lessons learned from some wonderful teachers, I was able to bring this precious stained glass panel back to life.

This piece was made a long time ago.  He said as much when he picked it up to take it back home again.  And yes, that made the repair more of a challenge…old solder and old wax…the dust and dirt of so many years that had covered every bit of it. But the harder I rubbed the more the beauty of that glass shone through. And that’s the way that it was meant to be.

Hanging around this planet for 64 years has made it a bit easier to see the beauty of so many things that lie just beneath…And when a certain light just begs for the chance to make it dance again, I am filled with all of the joy you’d expect to be any part of granting that wish.

It feels right, taking a moment to be grateful for this day. I was able to help someone that thought they’d lost something special. The look of gratitude on his face made me know that I’m doing exactly what I should be doing. That’s a pretty great way to spend a day.