- What does it all mean?

Yesterday we got confidential news that a dear friend's cancer had returned and spread. Today the news is out in the open, but my heart remains heavy.

I turned to my Kindred Spirits, finding a thread running from tree graffiti at Tanglewood Threads to glyphs at Paper Ponderings to runes at Tales from the Birdhut. 

I couldn't help but think of J.R.R. Tolkien's writings, replete with elves and dwarfs (dwarves?), hobbits and wizards ... all with their own languages. Once upon a time, I even re-imagined this in stitch ...

dated 1973, when I was seventeen ...

and never quite completed (see tree on the left)

So today I stitched a galaxy ...

Patch #78

with no other message than this: it's not always clear what the meaning of life might be ... we just have to keep going.

One last thing, to end on a hopeful note. Every so often I look at the stats for the blog, which include the top referring sites. Today I saw a new URL and found my way to Bluebonnet Girl Weaving. The seventeen year old who still lives inside me found a new Kindred Spirit and takes heart that some things change for the better.