There’s a fragile, colourful theme running throughout our lives. It’s a theme that the narrowboat part of our life, just one of the many beautiful homes we’ve lived in, now takes us from one to another discovery of new, exciting, palette reflecting something unique, often in unexpectrd places.
Those colours are often not as fragile as they appear when encased in lead as stained glass. This week alone we have found them in the soaring space of a cathedral and illuminating a humble parish church.
The latter contained two modern style stained glass windows and got me thinking. These, made and donated in memory of an individual and a family, are really poignant. They contain elements important to those people such as a Mercedes Benz logo and white rose of Yorkshire.
So what I wondered would be in my stained glass window?
What would be in yours?
How and what would we want to be remembered?
Putting down in glass what matters to you requires thought and evaluation. You can’t have everything so it’s a helpful process of reflection. This can happen at any time in our lives and is invaluable – to see what we have achieved or illuminating what we want to achieve.
Constraints require focus – you can’t have everything so what is important, what is essential to you? What ahould be the colours – what the reflection?
Reflection is an essential part of professional development and is as valuable in our personal lives, something we often forget.
Reflection is a process that enables us to take stock, to move forward informed by what has gone before, and in my case, sort out the calm from the noise.
A stained glass window struck me as a great tool for reflection (pun fully intended). There is the window itself with its carefully curated contents. Then the reflection it casts is diffused, different and often more thought-provoking.
Some years ago I made a stained glass window for the Skipper when we lived on land. It was a window that was the essence of him (or at least as I see him) focused, clear, unfussy, and fundamentally, of course, for him, reflecting his beloved Yorkshire.
The same white rose of Yorkshire flies on the back of our boat. Its glazed fused replica still sits in the middle of that window, now bound up in storage. Maybe one day it will find a new home. It is just too big for the boat, so it has to wait for now.
So what, I found myself thinking this week, would be in my own stained glass window. Selfishly, even honing things down, I found that too much mattered to me, too much is fundamental to me, now and in the future. So I need two windows. You might find you need one, two or a triptych.
Within mine (portrayed here courtesy of AI) is family, founded in our marriage and our two amazing daughters. Now that has gloriously expanded to include their two great partners and our three gorgeous grandchildren (who definitely don’t look as AI has portrayed them!).
So family remains at the heart of things, whatever I do I do for them. In a way that simplifies things in my life. It always has done. What I do is about making them proud and trying to make them safe and happy. I know I often get things wrong but I keep trying. It’s about trying to set examples showing not perfection but that you make mistakes, can overcome things and achieve something. If the first path you try does not work out, try the second or the third and you will get there – wherever there might be.
My PhD, which I celebrated with them both there as adults at my graduation was in point about recognising some people’s journeys are different to others, and have more diversions. Now I’m seeking a route to be a good granny – my mother never had the chance to be to my girls so I have no direct role model but I also recognise we are two very different people so we would have had very different approaches to being a granny. On reflection each of us should be content to be whatever we feel is right for us as individuals.
Other strands flowing through my reflections are water, friends, education, nature and of course my dogs, in all their shapes and sizes. These elements have been and continue to be valued in bringing meaning and balance.
I recognise some things need more focus and others less attention. Another realisation is that AI can never replace personal effort and creativity. One day I shall build my own stained glass leaded window – and it won’t look as garish as the AI version.
Remembering less is more is my fundamental reflection. Focus. Simplicity. Essentials.
Pickingupducks 