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"Grandma, how do you deal with pain?"
"With your hands, dear. When you do it with your mind, the pain hardens even more."
"With your hands, Grandma?"
"Yes, yes. Our hands are the antennas of our soul. When you move them by sewing, cooking, painting, touching the earth or sinking them into the earth, they send signals of caring to the deepest part of you and your soul calms down. This way she doesn't have to send pain anymore to show it."
"Are hands really that important?"
"Yes, my girl. Thinking of babies: they get to know the world thanks to their touches. When you look at the hands of older people, they tell more about their lives than any other part of the body. Everything that is made by hand, so is said, is made with the heart because it really is like this: hands and heart are connected. Masseuses know this: when they touch another person's body with their hands, they create a deep connection. Thinking of lovers: when their hands touch, they love each other in the most sublime way."
"My hands, Grandma.. how long haven't I used them like that!"
"Move them my girl, start creating with them and everything in you will move. The pain will not pass away. But it will be the best masterpiece. And it won't hurt anymore. Because you managed to embroider your essence."
*
Words by Elena Barnabé
Painting: "The Wise Woman" by Sandra Bierman
This extract rings so beautiful and true. It also coincidentally articulates why our current situation seems so unnatural and difficult to cope with, because it is so instinctual to reach out to another, to make contact, with our hands. As things are at the moment with social distancing largely still in place, we are denied the very thing that comes so naturally to us. But we still can make contact with our hands to the earth, to our pain, and with our eyes, those windows of the soul, we still can make contact to another.
ReplyDeleteVery true indeed, David ♥
Deletethis is beautiful. My mom is 96 years old and a wise grandmother as well. I never realized why I love using my hands to garden or to dig in the dirt, but it does nourish my soul...
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