We Did It!

The signs can finally come down!What an emotional time it has been. All the pageantry on Sunday, and the run up to today’s event, with sandwiched between, Martin Luther King Day! wowie. I’m psyched.

Last evening at around 8pm I finished soldering the first side of The  Phoenix (mythological bird rising out of the flames and ashes) . It is a stained glass panel  commissioned by some folks while they almost literally rise up out of the ashes to rebuild after a house fire. For me, the phoenix has been a good symbol, as our country prepares to lift itself up out of the ashes. And as I am always preparing for what lies ahead in my own life, the phoenix is a great (if complicated!)  symbol of hope.

I often work with music in the background;  last night, The Radiator— our community radio station.

I walked away from the work bench for a moment,  because I wanted to delay the gratification of the “first light”. I had a sip of coffee,  looked out at the snow coming down, came back to the bench and  took a deep breath. Grasping the panel with both hands, I lifted to the light for the first viewing. At exactly that second when the panel was coming off the table, Jimi Hendrix’s The Star Spangled Banner began to play on The Radiator. I was floored.

click on image for enlargement

The colors aren’t right in this picture. purples in the glass around the bird’s head and on upper right corner were blown out in ths photo. and the blue circle to the right of wing on right is deep purple,not blue. glass on upper left and along top has much more color. but you get the idea…it’s almost impossible to shoot a panel like this to give any true sense of the thing.