Full Circle

We shall not cease from exploration

And the end of all our exploring

Will be to arrive where we started

And know the place for the first time.

~T.S. Eliot,  From Four Quartets:  Little Gidding

It seems different this time.

Sitting down at my Japanese embroidery frame this morning, I felt less pressured.  Less anxious about completing my work.  More settled and at home than I have in years past.

When I first began Japanese embroidery, it was over 20 years ago.  I was fairly young in my surface embroidery lifecycle.



I was living in Japan and completed three phases and nearly finished a fourth over the course of my three-year stay there.

When I came home, I was busy working in a new job, finding a home, getting married and having Jack.

Japanese embroidery slipped into the background, though I did have success in locating an excellent Japanese embroidery teacher only a half-hour from my home.

Over the years, I have reunited with JE and then let it lie fallow at least three or four times.  No matter what life threw at me, I always seemed to keep a finger in the door of Japanese embroidery.  And though I have been fickle in my commitment, I have never quite divorced her.

I feel constrained by it, yes.

But there's something about it that tugs at my soul.

I'm back at it and I'm dedicating a few mornings a week to completing some old pieces.

This one is called Eternal Grace.  If you've been around here long enough, you've seen her before.



She's eternal all right.  I'm hoping to re-name her to Terminable Grace.

But already, I see her with an older, wiser pair of eyes.  And it doesn't seem like that big of a deal to be back here again.  I have arrived where I started.

And I know this place.



[Aside:  We have a German exchange student who arrives tonight.  His name is Dominick and he'll be staying with us for ten days.  He might just show up here on the blog since we have lots of trips planned.  I'll stop in as I can.  Be well Beautiful Blogging Friends.]