Friday, March 07, 2008

Aloha Friday

Aloha Readers!

I have decided to start a new blog tradition. In the tradition of Love Thursday and the spirit of the islands, I now present for your reading delight...Aloha Friday!

And since we actually want this new tradition to have more of a theme than a common title or label...PASSION. Why? Because Aloha Friday is all about escaping the drudgery of the work week and doing the things you really want to.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Earlier today I had lunch with one of my co-workers. Among the many things we talked about she asked me what I wanted to do next. Not in the, "so what's your next job going to be?" but the "what do you really want to do with your life?" kind of way.

"You know, the old 'what would you do if you had a million dollars' question."

I smiled and immediately said, "stained glass."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My first experience with stained glass was with a lady who owned a little shop in a nearby 'tourist trap' town. She mostly did scrap-glass pieces. It was there in her little shop that I made my first two scrap-glass wall hangings with her. My first was an abstract piece that consisted of blue and clear glass of various patterns, textures and shapes. It was a fairly small piece, only about 12x15 inches, but I was hooked.

It was magic. Simple, crazy magic. The bright sunshine poured in through the large window, illuminating the countless stained glass pieces and scattering brightly colored splotches on the floor. There I stood, a silly young teenager with sun bleached hair and blue glass sunglasses, tossing oddly shaped glass together. I wore an over sized, coarse blue button-down shirt over my clothes to protect them from the dirty water in the grinder.

I can't remember the lady's name or even what she looked like, but I remember the smell. The smell was warm sunshine and sweet incense with a dash of coffee and a pinch of mechanic's workshop thrown in. It was the smell of the soul's creativity unleashed. The smell of passion discovered.

3 comments:

TjandMark/AKA PearlandHawkeye said...

Hey Momma Em, I love thinking about passion. Hmmm. I saw the movie, "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" last week and 'live life' keeps rolling around in my head. Life life, live life, live life! Sometimes I feel a little seasick, but it is good. This true story is filmed from the point of view of a man who has had a massive stroke that has left his brain fully functioning, but everything else (with the exception of one eye)paralyzed. Eventually they develop a system of communication with blinking and he co-writes a novel of his locked-in experience. In some ways, I hated this French film and yet, and yet I find myself savoring life, like a cold ice cream on a hot day. So I think I will like your Aloha Fridays and thinking about what you wanna do. Yes, live your passion.

TjandMark/AKA PearlandHawkeye said...

As Marlon Brandon said so eloquently;" I love the smell of Passion in the morning!" Or something like that.
Does atained glass artist work on light table? How else can you know what the illuminated colors really appear next ot each other? hmmm mark

Momma Em said...

TJ- I've never seen The Diving Bell and the Butterfly but it sounds interesting. I'll have to put it on my Netflix que.

Mark- Only stained glass artist who can afford large light tables use them. The poor ones just hold the glass up to a window or light. *grin*