This is my finished blown glass vase, made by yours truly on Oct 12. I was thrilled to pick it up yesterday and hold it in my own hands. There is so much imagery in it. I see Helene in it. The bottom has large colors holding onto their own spaces. Some overlap and some take up their own space without touching the others. As your eyes travel up, it begins to swirl, first slowly and then recklessly, deeply compressing all the colors tightly together. All the colors form to see new colors with no rhyme or reason, but they all ascend together without the ability to change direction or part from the gravity pushing them, like a hurricane. As the churning suddenly stops it gives way to an opening. The massive cavernous spout will hold flowers born out of the ground of Black Mountain and cultivated by man. As one, each bloom will demonstrate its own beauty and when combined with others connection and community creates a larger more beautiful scene.

As our community rises together, now intertwined by a natural disaster we did not want and trauma that will shake us for the rest of our lives, we are now fully dependent upon the overlapping of our lives. Strangers are now trusted soulmates. Masks have been shed. There is no room for competition. We are all in this together and we rise from this flooded land, stronger and more complete with each other. As our Pastor, Chad Smith said just weeks ago before the storm, “The fruit of our lives is experienced in connection with others”. I wrote it down that day and stuffed it in my pocket book. I had no idea how those words would ring so loudly in my life just a few days later.

#braveinallthings
#BlackMountainStrong

© Gatewood Campbell, October 2024