The View Through A Kaleidoscope

"Dreams dress us carefully in the colors of power and faith."

-- Aberjhani, I Made My Boy Out of Poetry

Beach glass kaleidoscope 1-21-14

"Gratitude doesn't change the scenery.

It merely washes clean the glass you look through

so you can clearly see the colors."

-- Richelle E. Goodrich, Smile Anyway

Some people make their own cookies.

Some people make their own jam.

I make my own kaleidoscopes.

I taught myself how during my 2012 "No Day Without Art" 365 days challenge, and I never get tired of the million little miracles I can make from one cardboard tube and handful of ordinary junk held up to the light.

The "junk" in today's kaleidoscope is a few shards of beach glass. My son Leo loves collecting beach glass on the Lake Erie shore near our house. He'll stroll the shoreline for hours, in all kinds of weather, head bent down, scanning for bits of blue, green, white, brown, amber. He keeps in in Mason jars.

He shared a little of it with me for this kaleidoscope. It's the first time I used beach glass, and I loved the results. It refracted the light beautifully, softly, and it's irregular shapes and sizes made some lovely and surprising designs.

The beauty of a homemade kaleidoscope, like this one, is that no two looks through the eye-hole are ever the same. The glass, or beads, or marbles, or whatever I use, tumble in random, endlessly unrepeatable patterns. 

I won't bore you with a million of them here. But I will share a couple more:

Beach glass kaleidoscope (2) 1-21-14

Sometimes you see snowflakes.

Beach glass kaleidoscope (3) 1-21-14

Sometimes you see flowers.

Sometimes, like in the image at the top of the page, you see a stained glass cathedral window. 

Since I have all of my kaleidoscope-making stuff out, I think I'll make one or two more today. Sometimes I give them as gifts. Sometimes I keep them for myself. This one I'll keep, though. Leo worked too hard to collect the glass, so I can't just give it away. 

When the view from down here gets grim or depressing or sad or hateful or dark, a peek through one of my kaleidoscopes has the power to change how I see things, and then change it again, and again, and again, and again. 

An argument can't do that. Politics can't do that. A pill can't do that. A weapon can't do that. A war can't do that. Advertising can't do that. Religion can't do that. 

In honor of Martin Luther King Jr., who said and did a lot of good things and who we celebrated yesterday,

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness;

only light can do that.

Hate cannot drive out hate;

only love can do that."

-- Martin Luther King, Jr.

A kaleidoscope is a good way see the light. And the colors.