Glitter gets the attention, but for all its flash, it is delicate, vulnerable.  The wind or a breath can easily carry it away.

Glue sticks.  It helps the glitter hold on.  Glue can be in glitter’s fairy dust presence, but glue is covered, underneath.  They are a suited pair.

I remember being in early grammar school and loving glue and glitter.  Everything was construction paper, Elmer’s and big jars of shiny back then.  Mother’s Day cards, Valentine hearts, Christmas trees, they all had glitter and glue in the lunchbox days.

Looking back at my own children, I think glitter starts to wane around the third grade. It becomes markers and colored pencils from there on out.

Glitter is messy.  It continues to tinkle off all creations for years after they have been tucked away in boxes.  Glue though, once dried, holds on to pieces of glitter with tight fists.  No matter how many folds or shakes, glitter that is safely held by glue doesn’t budge.

Sure most of it may fly away over time, but there is always some shimmer left.  I have never seen a bead of dried glue, once afire with glitter, that was left bare.  Glue tears from the paper before it lets go of glitter.

I like glitter.  I love to see it misplaced on cheeks or when it has drifted to an unexpected place.  Glitter is reflection, tiny mirrors that remind me of being young, when my children were young.  Backpacks, ice cream trucks, and refrigerator art.

Glitter is childish splendor, but it is a fleeting moment, lost, without the glue.

My thoughts from the laundry room.  Twinkle Twinkle.

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