Caming My Life! Thoughts and Stories from a Queer Elder

Caming my Life!

Thoughts and stories from a Queer Elder

Caming My Life

Caming is the metal banding that joins panels of glass into a unique design.

When I first heard this word I loved the image of broken or cut pieces of glass being brought together with metal to create a stained glass window. My experiences, my connections, my inner thoughts are how I got here now. These are the camings connecting all of the beautiful and not so beautiful aspects of the stained glass that is me. This is the "pane scape" of me, a never finished life! A reflection of color, light and various elements. It is a work in progress and continues to call out to light so it can reflect its creator.

Being confronted with non-existence, allowed me to fully live. Thoughts of death? They let light in. When light hits glass, beauty reflects outward.

This is simply a collection of moments from my life. These are the pieces of glass that are me. (The beautiful, the mundane and down right primal.) Bringing them together to honor and on some level acknowledge my life. Caming it, if you will. My family members and friends may not know my inner life. I hope to reveal its light and its darker corners and perhaps, affirm for me (and the reader) the blessings and the beauty of what is here right now for all of us.

Frank Asher