I love glass…..

I love stained glass…..

I love blown glass…..

…..given my lifestyle and propensity for living in a world of fresh disasters…..

…..my love for glass things…..is…..

…..unfortunate…..

But…..I will continue to love its beauty and fragility…..

I’ve been collecting hand-blown friendship balls and witch’s balls and gazing balls over the years…..

~~~~~Blown Glass Spheres~~~~~

…..(I haven’t learned how to blow glass………….yet…)…..

…..(but I might)…..

…..I have them hanging everywhere around the house…..

I’ve hung glass balls over our old bathtub…..they look like varied and colorful soap bubbles…..

…..when soaking in the tub…..they’re pretty from the bottom…..looking up…..

We have various jars around the house holding pretty shard of broken glass…..

…..(as a result of the past/inevitable “fresh disasters”)…..

During my years on the women’s professional tennis circuit…..I would wander into old churches…..on my time off…..

…..one very clear memory (which I’ve probably already told you about) was a very rainy spring day in Brussels…..

…..(it was an outdoor tournament…..so because of the rain…..there was a lot of time off)…..

I wandered into a very, very old church off one of the squares…..

…..and through some very heavy and very squeaky old wooden doors…..

…..I found myself deposited in the nave section of the ancient church (with a great many local/irritated gazes turned my way)…..

The church’s only lighting was the guttering torches along the walls of the side aisles…..

…..the gray-ness of the day outside…..along with the flickering flames…..set off the old/old stained glass windows…..

…..I wish I could have stayed…..

…..but I’d disturbed the service (I think)…..

…..so except for that exceptionally-squeaky old door…..

…..I quietly tip-toed out…..

But I still remember the glass windows of that church…..

…..and St. Paul’s…..and Winchester Cathedral’s…..

…..and the Vatican’s Papal Basilica…..(only a single dove)…..(a beautifully/simplistic single dove)…..

During my travels I would visit as many churches and temples as I could for their beautiful/ancient/artisan glass…..

…..great memories…..

…..(plus…..I would take photos of their gargoyles, too)…..