Expanding Friendships

For many years I had seven best friends.  I called them My Magnificent Seven. But times change.  One of my seven died, for example.   Recently I realized that those framed photos of the seven were not as relevant as they once were, that my Seven had shifted.   

I have two new young friends (one under fifty, one just turned fifty) who are both graphic artists.  I met them both through the mifflettes. I met Susy first, specifically because the One -in-Seven friend who was dying at the time, had to cancel a rendezvous.   Quite miserable, sad and lonely, I sighed and attended a gallery opening I'd been invited to in Boston instead of the rendezvous.  It was for Susy, the friend in the foreground here.   

It was love at first sight.   I loved Susy's art (her show that was opening) and she loved my mifflettes which were sold at the gallery.   She ordered two; I bought two of her bags.  

Fast forward a couple of months.  Susy invited me to participate in a holiday show at her house. That's where I met Jan, the friend in the background, in the middle.  At the very end of the evening we made  a connection over Buddha, the Buddha celebrated by her late husband, Buddha painted one hundred times by him.   

Inspired by his paintings, I went on to create soft sculptures of Buddha.    Jan and I collaborated to market them.    They were sold at another gallery, where they sold out.   I made one final one, especially for Jan, out of one her late husband's sweaters,  my Buddha swan song. 

 Now I seem to have finished the Buddha period, but maintain my friendships with these wonderful women.   I don't see them that often but when I do, the chemistry abounds.   In my old age, I realize how friendships shift and change, how lonely we'd be if we didn't incorporate new people into our circle.  I have to consider what to call my current group of closest friends since I no longer feel that Magnificent Seven covers the territory.