The Artist’s Hands
Last week I spent a little more time with my wife and a pottery teacher.
We talked about how to glaze, mix colors, and how our bowls would turn out.
When I asked the teacher what was her “reason and purpose for teaching pottery”, I wasn’t surprised by her answer.
“Some people just have this on their bucket list.” She said.
She then continued to talk about how therapeutic it was, and that many of your students, were therapists themselves.
This led me to the conclusion that it’s also about personal growth, and maybe even spirituality.
Of course, I already knew the answer, but it was fun to hear it from someone who doesn’t know me, or anything about what I do.
This brought me to think about the time I centered and molded the bowls I was now coloring.
As I did, I looked down at my hands, and was just in awe.
As if they were a separate part of me, I came to realize all they have done.
They have created music over 40 years.
They have held two newly born babies, as they left their mother’s womb.
They have caressed that same mother (my wife) in times of need, times of comfort, and held her in times of joy.
They have created graphics, flowcharts, written books, and learned computer graphics, for the better part of 20 years.
And finally, they are typing this right now.
Take a moment and think of your own hands. Not as a part of yourself, but just your hands, as if they are a part of the Divine, and have guided you your entire life.
Take a moment and realize this one simple aspect of just how amazing they are.
How amazing YOU are.
Image by Adam (It is a coffee mug created by my Pottery teacher Linda)
Aline
I love this reflection Adam – I have often thought about the very same thing, along the lines of how we take our hands and arms for granted. I’ve even done a guided meditation focusing on the arms and allowing them to have a rest for a change!
Thanks – and I love the coffee mug.
Adam King
That’s very cool Aline and your’e welcome.
I’m glad you like the cup too. It’s funny, our teacher showed us that cup as she was going to give it to a partner to display at his place. She even had other cups for sale in the gallery.
But I was like “Uh, you’re not going to like this, but I want THIS one.”
She laughed but that didn’t stop her from taking my money. 😉
And I’m glad she did. Artists don’t get paid enough in my book.
Pat(Itstime)
Tears. Such a beautiful sharing.
A flood of memories of my writings/experiences from Archetype/Cloth & Box flowed through me as I read this. Thank you for helping me remember and re-appreciate my hands and their ‘yes’ to Source. As I write this, I open the box and watch my hands take out the cloth. I watch my fingers move back and forth over the cloth. Are they feeling the texture or are they feeling the memories? Then, as I look at my hand as it rests upon the cloth, I see something I never saw before…..I realize my hands are the ‘Cloth’ I carry with me always. Thank you.
Adam King
Thank you Pat. I’ll tell ya, I had no idea the impact Archetype would have after all of these years.
I’m glad that we’re building on that with Threads of Tessera.
And thank you for being with me on that journey as well. I had a great time today in our gathering and can’t wait to open the story up to the public next week!
Angela Russell
Dearest Pat(Itstime) ~
I keep coming back every week to re-read this incredible post about hands and there are tears every time I read it. It has such a profound effect on me but I couldn’t find a way to express it. When you say that you appreciate your hands “…and their “yes” to Source”.” there’s an instantly warm and deep feeling of agreement within my heart. The intimacy that our sense of touch and the ability to work or hold something creates is amazing. It’s not just the activity of the work they accomplish but the meaningfulness and connection of the creating. Adam has expressed the most incredibly intimate and beautiful moments in this post, holding his newborn children, loving and sharing love and joy, sorrow and pain are experienced, and beauty is created in work and art and expression of thought and feeling. No wonder this act of creating with your hands in clay is a bucket list item for lots of folks. The simplicity of touch and motion to create out of the most basic element of clay. Nothing could be more complex! Thank you Adam and Pat for sharing such sweet memories! Thank you for the reminder that it all comes out of the divine.
Adam King
Thank you for the comment Angela, it’s good to revisit this and see your reflections.
it’s also cool to know that I took a picture of that mug before I ever drank out of it.
Now, I drink out of it every morning. 🙂