Makers Creating Resilience: Re-Skilling Our Communities & Lives
One of the things that has made the biggest impact on my life and sanity has been an ongoing practice as a maker. This could be sewing or straw-bale building as well as cooking delicious meals, baking, or preserving jams or pestos from the garden. My hands NEED to create and these engaging activities keep their making capacity well-oiled. It keeps me happy and healthy and is a part of the wealth I hold in my life. It gives me a natural access to beauty and nature….and community. I often share these activities with friends and neighbours as well. Picking fruit with a neighbour, selectively coppicing a tree with a skilled friend, baking bread with my son, foraging seaweed with like-minded strangers. These things keeps my innate intelligence engaged.
Simply stated, making something with our hands grounds us and helps build relationships. Renate Hiller has resiliency skills set! She speaks to eloquently about this that I simply had to share her. I think that what she has to say and the WAY she says it offers us such grace in the midst of madness. I love her calm and simple magnificence.. and those same qualities that are part of being a maker. She has a calm passionate presence that I adore and suspect you, too, will recongnize and appreciate.
“Our destiny is written in the hand”
Practicing mindfulness. Paying attention. Listening generously.
Let me know what YOU think and what activities you do that keep your hands connecting you and resilient.
Have a great day!