Sat Feb 3: Highest Honor - One of the things that happens in the SCA, is that there are awards given out by the King and Queen (or others) in court. Most of them have a set text that is read first, before the recipient is called up before Their Majesties. In listening to award ceremonies, this one always stood out to me (excerpt from the Legion of Courtesy Award):

"...the Queen...is reminded of Her responsibility to be an example of honor and gentle grace for Her people. She is, therefore, First Lady of Courtesy in the Realm; and thus it is fitting that She should, from time to time, find means to honor those persons who, by their uncommon pursuit of the ideals of honor and courtesy, display gentle behaviour as a away of life, and provide inspiration for us all. And this Order is called the Legion of Courtesy: because those who aspire to the high ideals of this Order should be legion, or without finite number."

Although I always wondered "how can you aspire to an award without looking like you're award-seeking?" And so I just chalked it up to things to ponder, and figured I'd just find a way to live like that, regardless whether I ever received one or not.

[pause for melodramatic effect] Her Majesty gave me a Legion of Courtesy at opening court on Saturday.

The award token presented is a little yellow rose medallion, hung from a cord. Most people seem to wear it close fitting, as a type of choker necklace. I was already wearing some jewelry with my outfit that day, so I tied the necklace up tight, so it hung close to my neck.

That little yellow rose at the hollow of my throat will always be the most special award I could ever receive. I was thinking, "Wow, I could die a happy woman. I never need another award again -- this is the highest honor I could ever receive."
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The Rest of Saturday - So, besides the shock and happy tears of receiving the Legion of Courtesy (LoC), it was a wonderful day celebrating the arts and especially performances for the Queen. The whole event, the "Festival of the Rose," is designed in Her Honor.

Some time ago, my dear friend Lilya (who happens to be the Bard of Caid right now) challenged me personally (before she became the Bard of Caid) to write a composition called a "ghazal" which is a middle ages Persian or Urdu poetry form, made famous most notably by the poet Rumi. This poet is also the favorite of our current Queen. Ghazal poems (pronounced like "guzzle") only center around one topic or theme: Love. They have a strict compositional form of 5-15 couplets. Each couplet needs to be able to stand alone as a sentence or several sentences and a complete thought. There has to be a refrain that is repeated at the end of the first and second line of the first couplet, and at the end of the second line of the couplets thereafter. The rhymes fall before the refrain. And all the couplets should have the same meter. (These are the most common restrictions to which ghazals conform.) And the author often hid his name in the last couplet.

In addition to Lilya's personal challenge to me, I've issued several bardic challenges. One challenge, which I am also endeavoring to complete, is to write all the pieces you *would* have written to enter the Bard of Caid competition in January, if you had entered. The pieces should conform to the rules of the list, and be performed sometime in the calendar year of 2007, before the next Bard of Caid competion in 2008. The Bard of Caid competition included four pieces: One "period" piece (with documentation for something from the Middle Ages); one piece you consider your best, one piece inspired by or about Rumi (the "Queen's Choice" category this year), and one piece composed on site during the competition using the randomly selected words "Scion," "Hands," and "Honor." In my challenge, I've said to complete and perform these four pieces anytime during this year, with no rules about what constitutes "performing" the pieces.

I told Her Majesty that I intended to complete this challenge, and She replied "You'll have one of the pieces for Festival of the Rose, right?" The question has only one answer, of course, "Yes, Your Majesty." So I anticipated that I would write my Rumi piece for the BoC challenge in the form of a ghazal, for Lilya's personal bardic challenge.

So, what did I do? I composed the five minute poem, set it to an original tune, and completed it during my 90-minute drive to the event. If I cannot compose a 5-minute piece in 90-minutes, what kind of bard am I? *laughs* I'm quite proud of my final piece, and you can read the piece here.

Oh! And I gave Cormac his new tabard, and he absolutely adored it! I got some photos, but it'll be a day or two until I have them loaded from the event. More soon.

Sun Feb 4: War Practice in the Park - The last group practice for rapier fencing before Estrella was held in the park next door where Saturday's event was held. While everyone was out working on the field, several of us sat in the shade working on hand-sewing and chatting. I'm almost done stitching the eyelets for Raphael's red outer jacket from the big 12th Night project, so that he'll be able to spiral-lace the jacket and use it for fencing, too.

I got home at a decent hour, and then Ceridwen came over with some fliers for the "Welcome Week" at the local Cal State this week. She's the new seneschal (president) for their college chapter of the SCA, and I'm going to help out at the booth over my lunch two days this week. Nothing like a few projects stacked on top of one another? *grin*

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Today's Blessing That I'm Thankful For: Faizeh, for Her belief in me, and the countless other friends who affirmed they thought I richly deserved this honor. Thank you all, you humble me and make me inspired to do the things I do.