I Went Alone to Make a Lamp

I wanted to make a lamp. That’s really how this whole thing started. I had seen one of those Turkish mosaic lamp classes, and I thought it looked like so much fun. I’d never done anything like it before, and I wanted to try it.

But there was something else going on too. I knew I needed to get out of my house. I’d been feeling the need to push myself a little outside of what had become comfortable, and doing something completely different and creative felt like a good way to do that. The only problem was I didn’t have anyone to go with me. Normally, that might have been enough for me to put it off. I could’ve waited until I found someone who wanted to go or until the timing worked out for someone else. But the whole point was to get out of my comfort zone, and I really wanted to make this lamp. So I went by myself.

I walked into a room where I didn’t know anyone, sat down at a table, and started figuring out how to make a Turkish mosaic lamp. And I loved it.

They gave us a planning sheet that helped us choose the designs we wanted to use, which I definitely needed because this was completely new to me. I started looking through the different patterns, choosing the ones I liked, picking my colors, and figuring out how I wanted everything to come together. Then I started creating.

There was something about the process that pulled me in almost immediately. I was choosing pieces of glass, arranging them into the patterns I’d selected, looking at the colors together, changing things when I wanted to, and slowly watching this clear glass globe become something. I wasn’t thinking about much of anything else. I was just there.

Once the larger pieces were in place, it was time to fill in all the spaces between them with these tiny colored beads. I chose the colors I wanted, mixed them together, and then worked my way around the globe section by section, sprinkling the beads into all of the open areas. And somewhere in all of this, I realized how completely absorbed I was.

Actually, “somewhere” probably isn’t even accurate because the whole process felt that way. From choosing the designs to placing the glass to mixing and sprinkling the beads, I was in this incredibly focused, quiet space. It felt like meditation.

What’s interesting is that I hadn’t gone there to meditate. I hadn’t gone there looking for some kind of spiritual experience. I went because I wanted to get out of my house, stretch myself beyond my comfort zone, and make something with my hands that I’d never made before. But there I was, completely present. And I’ve been thinking about that ever since.

I think sometimes we have such a specific picture of what meditation is supposed to look like that we don’t recognize it when we experience it in another form. We think meditation means sitting somewhere quietly, closing our eyes, focusing on our breath, or following a guided practice. And yes, of course, that’s meditation. But what about the moments when we become so present with what we’re doing that everything else gets quiet?

I know that feeling from meditation, and I knew it while I was making that lamp. There wasn’t anything I needed to figure out. I wasn’t thinking ahead to what I needed to do when I got home. I wasn’t wondering whether I was doing it right. My attention was simply on the piece in front of me and what I wanted to do next.

Maybe that’s part of why I enjoyed it so much. I also got to be a beginner. I didn’t know what I was doing. I had a planning sheet and someone showing me the process, but beyond that, I got to choose what I liked. I wasn’t trying to be good at it. I wasn’t making it for anyone else. There was no business purpose behind it and nothing I needed to accomplish with it. I was making a lamp because I wanted to make a lamp. There’s something wonderfully freeing about that.

And then I got to see it lit. I had been looking at this globe for hours as individual pieces of glass, patterns, colors, and beads. I knew I liked what I had created, but seeing the light come through it was completely different. Suddenly, I could see the whole thing.

Now it’s sitting in my house, and every time I look at it, I’m reminded of the afternoon I decided to go do something by myself simply because I wanted to. But I’m also reminded of something I seem to be noticing everywhere lately. We’re already practicing so much of what we call spirituality in our everyday lives. We just don’t always recognize it because it doesn’t necessarily look “spiritual.”

Maybe meditation doesn’t always begin when we close our eyes. Maybe creativity can bring us into the same presence we spend so much time trying to cultivate. Maybe getting out of our comfort zone doesn’t have to mean doing something enormous or terrifying. Sometimes it’s walking into a class alone and giving yourself permission to be new at something. And maybe self-trust can be as simple as wanting to do something and not needing anyone else to want to do it with you.

I didn’t know any of that was going to happen when I signed up. I just wanted to make a lamp.

And I’m really glad I went.