Replacing the broken glass when there are other things to do...

Lying on floor to do the yoga and reach up to open the window which the nice breeze had blown shut and the crack of the glass was a sharp reminder to the many broken unfixed things in  my life.

Said to hell with the broken pane, and finished the yoga.

There is another pane being held together with tape for about two years now. I was cleaning and it cracked, but I managed to hold the pieces together and put tape on them.

I have to sort out some work. Do some other things.  Rain might come and come through the space.

I say to hell with it. Manage to feel mindful, and carefully extract another pane to carry to the glass store.

Man comes out of the story and said yes, should be about 200 each, but ask the boss man, Tony. Tony says  yes, looks at me and says three for a thousand.  I want three, to replace the one broken today, the one with tape, and one just in case any of them break. Another time I had broken a pane while trying to replace it.

He speaks in a language sounding like one of the Chinese languages to a short man, slightly balding. Paunch. Round spectacles like mine. Short fingers.

He takes the pane, measures it calmly. His head is down. He picks up a large pane of glass. Uses the ruler, the square. He takes the diamond from part of a plastic bottle cut in two , one part of which is nailed to the post like a container.

 The diamond to put the cut. He taps gently, sometimes twice to break the glass.  He carefully puts the  remaining glass in different places around him.

Soon there are three pieces. He replaces the diamond in the plastic bottle container on the post.

He takes the glass paper to soften the edges.  A woman comes up to help with smoothing out the edges.
His movements are slow but quick. He does not look at me when he is done. He walks away.


The woman smiles at me when I signal that the pane I am  holding is the one I brought. We lay the pieces together and she puts tape around them.

I come home. Breathe slowly and manage to slide in the pane. I feel good.

I go now, to the top, to remove the pane being held together with tape for two years or so.  Something tells me to keep it close. I am thinking of the man cutting.

The pane though is too big, it does not fit in this section.

So I take back the broken, taped up glass, and put it back.What is broken can still be used.

Later in the day I break another thing in the house. Another tradesman will have to come and fix it. I wonder if it is some sign, this breaking of things



Day is done. I have not done the work which I planned to do.

But  memories of the man from China moving the square and the ruler and the tape and the diamond to cut the glass.

And I think about work, and paying attention to what ever work I find myself doing.

Work which might not be the work which I think should be doing.