Reflections on Quilted Treasures - A piece of me has been nervous that today could be marred by further insanity. I'm glad that (so far) this is not true.

Since yesterday, I've been pondering how much has happened in my life since six years ago. Back then and/or since then:

• I was still living in my first on-my-own apartment after my divorce. I loved my apartment, hated my landlord.


• I still worked at the software company to the north of my shire. There were still three more office moves and a layoff that hadn't happened yet.


• I've had 4 permanent jobs and 1 temporary job intervening in the six years since.


• I've put probably 250,000 miles on my car since then.


• I'm still wearing some of the garb Morgana and I made that year.


• I've had five additional roommates and 4 moves since.


• My ex still was allowing me to see the kids occasionally.


• I still owned a piano.


• My car was broken into twice that year, and once again 2 years ago.


• I've only had one dating relationship in the intervening 6 years.


• I created the walls to my sunshade that year, and this was the fall when I went to Great Western with the "infamous homespun festiva rope" holding everything to the roof of my car.


• Coffee Bar of Splendoor was born at that Great Western.


• Crown Tourney a week after the Sept 11 attacks was the first time I'd ever seen the American Flag flown with all our SCA banners, and it was the most appropriate thing I'd ever seen, too. I remember the pavilions at that tourney being more tightly packed than any other event I'd ever seen, almost like we need to all be hugging one another with our very tent walls.


• I was still very involved with my local shire, and hadn't yet moved so far south.


• I've recorded and released two albums with my band since then, and our third is in process in recording right now. We performed in a couple of bars, a pre-show for a Festival, and as a Second-Stage band at an International Festival in Mexico. (I even had two friends come with me as "roadies," hee hee.)


• I've continued to run websites, served as a half-a-dozen different officers in two SCA groups, and have taken up a newsletter since then.


• I've been in my first SCA household (that wasn't just my immediate family) for just over a year now.

Just some thoughts.
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I've often believed that my life goes in seven-year cycles, and I'd been wondering what the next seven years were going to entail since I'm nearly the end of seven years since my divorce. I'd divided up life into "youth school years" of junior high and high school (just six years), "college years" which spanned seven calendar years for my four-year degree, "married years" which included dating, living with, being engaged to, married to, and then divorced from my ex-husband, and "since the divorce" which is nearing another seven year chapter.

Of course a tiny romantic voice in my head was hoping it would be a new chapter with a romantic partner, but this didn't come to pass. I'm hoping that I'm coming into a better sense of contentment being single, but since that's a daily/weekly/monthly effort, I'm not a good judge of whether that's working or not (hard to see the forest for all these trees, you know).

But as the curtains move up and down on chapters, and new programs are passed out to the audience, I think I see Act V starting to roll in the new sets, and the actors are in the wings. Although my dear friends Edric and Faizeh are poised to take stage again as King and Queen in November, I'm not taking the same role as Scribe (or other Court Helper). Instead, I'm putting all my efforts into this strange new role as Apprentice, and my job is to commit myself to artistic improvement, research, and new projects.

I'm not sure what I'll finally name these past seven years I just lived through. I don't really want to define them as "post-divorce" or "since 9-11" or anything like that. It's not the survival after loss era. It's been a blossoming of completely new projects, new people, new life. I have a rich and wonderful Shire plus a rich and wonderful Barony. I've been part of an amazing church back in my old Shire, and now have amazing new friends through the local synagogue from my Hebrew classes. I have an amazing array of different friends throughout the Kingdom, from all walks of life, from different households, different shires and baronies, old friends and new coming back into my life again. I have dozens of new friends in other Kingdoms, in other states, and half-way around the world: Wisconsin, Minnesota, Georgia, Florida, Hawaii, just to name a few.

I wonder if this might be the seven year chapter of "Rich and Varied Treasures." Hmm. It's like a quilt of memories, to snuggle and be warm in when things are going tough.

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Today's Blessing That I'm Thankful For: Quilted Treasures makes me think of how thankful I am to have Ciarlasse and Riordan back in my life again, too. I didn't know how *much* I missed you both until you returned.