How did you celebrate Earth Day this year? Did you learn a new tip, volunteer cleaning up a neighborhood park or did you just vow to live an extra green way of life? Our family headed to Great Bend to take part in their annual Earth Day event. We arrived at the Kansas Wetlands Education Center shortly after the event was set to open and things were in full swing.



I have always loved glass art. When I was a child, my grandmother collected paper weights. I used to pick them up and marvel at the bursts of color sprouting from beneath layers of clear glass. These things of substance and beauty always held a little bit of mystery for me. My favorites could be turned upside down to reveal what seemed like a single point of color mysteriously bursting into the central floral or spiral design of the piece. They seemed impossible, mesmerizing and yet somehow soothing.
At the sound of the clip-clop of hooves on pavement and the jingle of bells, I could feel the excitement building amongst the crowd standing around me on a street corner in downtown Lawrence one chilly morning.