Final Shodo

This was the last day of shodo.  After being so moved by the book Chihiro and Yulia made for me, I thought it might be nice to make something similar, though far more humble for Sensei.  So with a little help, I managed to format my shodo related blog entries, print them, and put them together in a booklet.  I didn't realize that today was a last class for everyone, before a long break, and that there were many people present that normally would not be and many people giving gifts to Sensei.  But it was still wonderful to present it to her.  There were so many pictures of the work that I'd done and my attempts to learn from her.  And also pictures of a spring walk that we shared with Christy over a year ago.  I think everyone in the class enjoyed looking through the booklet and it was fun to make it.

And of course she gave me something, a sample of her own work, mounted so that I can hang it on the walls in my new home.  Three beautiful cards that can be interchanged in the hanger, one which has multiple writings of "百福、hyakufuku", meaning roughly a hundred good fortunes.  It's matted in the same way as my sakurafubuki sample, so it will be a really nice set.  And for work, she gave me several samples that I can presumably continue to work on in the coming year.  They are a step more difficult, but are the beginning of a set of exercises from a book that she works from.  My last class and a new beginning.

Also a new beginning for the friend that I brought for the first time.  And this concluded an interesting period of viewing old blog entries of my beginnings with shodo, in particular the friend that introduced me to the class, Christy.  I was suddenly in her place, trying to help this other colleague, while myself still feeling so new and uncertain.  It's fun to share something with others, to pass something along that I am grateful I was given.  I don't know if she will continue, but it was a good way to end the class.