Chasing Lightning Bugs Studio Blog

 it's three in the morning.  and i'm awake, sifting through beach glass.  today was a gray day, with a soft misty rain thickening the air for most of it.  and tracy and i spent the afternoon at the beach filling pockets and buckets and fists with smooth little glass gems.  ezra came for the first part, and although he was patient and found lots to interest him, 15 or 20 minutes was all he really had in him.  as i was walking him home, we met tracy's aunt and little cousin and we all settled in at the beach. 

 i haven't picked glass in a long time.  it used to be my daily escape in the summer.  i'd lose myself down at the beach for hours.  tom would have to come and bring me home.  often sunburned and sore.  i would get lost in the deafening of the waves and the expanse of lake.  the steadiness of the sound became silence, and it drummed out thoughts that were buried deep.  i would catalog my little collections by date.  or put little notes in the jar.  like the day i spent the afternoon after gala died. (gala was my great dane before edgar).  or certain birthdays.  i always had to allot a portion of my birthday to collect the jar of my birthday glass.  my first pieces that are linked to an event, are the ones i found the day my grandma gladys died in august, 1997.  big pieces of pastel and white ceramic.  i have them on the shelf on the stairs.  so it's been almost 16 years that these little shards started filling my life. 

these are some of my favorites from today.  i love the clear ones.  i love pieces that have texture or even words.  i love the robins egg and soft 1950s green pieces.  i kept finding smoky lavender pieces today.  several of them, that were the color of the sky.  and today, hunting with beautiful people and gentle rain, sharing our finds and giving each other the pieces we thought the other would like, an experience of love and beauty and giving.  a good good day.