A Full Day

Today was the busiest day the studio has ever seen--and Judy took the day off. Bad Judy! Actually, though we missed her, we did okay without her as there was no walk-in traffic and the phones were relatively quiet. It was still the busiest day, however, as I taught two full classes, Brian had two full bead-making classes, and Tadashi and Domenick had five glass blowing lessons/dates between them. That's all the people we can currently run through in a day. And they loved it, and many of them want to come back again and do more glass. And this is why I teach and have a teaching studio. I love the enthusiasm of the fresh beginner. I remember anew the fantastic feeling I got when I worked with glass for the first time and how I couldn't wait till I got to do it again.

It's kind of like falling in love. I remember when I met Dave and I was so in love with him, and I knew I'd marry him, and I was so extraordinarily happy but for one thing: I knew that as long as I loved him--and I couldn't (and still can't) imagine not loving him--I would never have that breathless feeling of falling in love again. I would never have the anxiety and the heights and the depths that come with new love. New love comes and consumes and terrifies and exhorts, and then it either skitters away, or calms down into something daily, deep and rich. Don't get me wrong. Daily, deep and rich are like swimming in dark chocolate--there is nothing better. But no matter how wonderful it is, you can't help but feel a twinge of longing for the knife-edged uncertainty and extreme sensation of New Love.

My relationship with glass is long and deep now. We are 24-year happily marrieds with all the complexity and comfort that that amount of time implies. I may temporarily lose myself in a new technique, or become entranced with a new color, but I know that I'll never again have the all-consuming obsession with glass that I did when I first met it.
And yet, when I teach a class, every now and then I see in someone else's face that fascination, that tactile lust for glass that I once felt, and I bask in the reflected glow of falling love all over again. Today was a day like that for me.

Now I curl up in bed next to my spouse. I feel the deep, warm comfort that comes from 16 wonderful years, and I know that somewhere else in Atlanta, someone is going to sleep alight with the fire of  New Love. New love for glass, to which I provided the introduction. And I am happy.