A few days ago, I went to listen to a Japanese woman (her name is Umi) talk about her life in the Himalayas. She lives there in a family of shepherds, hand spinners and weavers.
We looked at pictures of where she lives. They were amazing and somehow made me time travel back to a time when I traveled to India and Nepal quite a bit.
She had a notebook in which she had written down “chapters” and she opened up a new picture folder to match each “chapter”. The chapters were spoken like stories. During the few hours we spent together, we were asked (there were about 8 of us?) to talk about how we felt after some of the chapters. One of the most interesting topic to me was when we were asked to talk about how we thought “handcrafts” might be connected to our DNA.
All of the participants having different backgrounds, experiences, we all had different things to say but all agreed that some things we did with our hands, touching the soil, taking care of the soil, plants, vegetables, cooking, spinning wool, sewing, washing clothes in a river etc… made us feel something “special”. Now I think about it, for me, doing the dishes is one of these things too!!! We talked about how some things might be implanted in our DNA and when we do these things, we get this feeling of “connectedness”, as though we were connecting to our DNA, or our instinct is it? I was wondering if it was really DNA… or what… to move our hands, to sew, knit, to be surrounded by beauty, to make the world around us beautiful, maybe it is just natural. We feel good when we feel like we are part of nature, or of a natural rhythm…? there is no conclusion to this and I don’t have some deep insight or beautiful words to express myself better than the ones above! but I just thought this was an interesting topic!
This morning, I also realized that, like Umi, I have moved far away from my home, and feel that my hands are the happiest when blue~ and when sewing cloth to be dyed (shibori) strange destiny. I always wonder how and why our senses bring us to far away places… how strange it is that I feel this connection the most when I am in Japan… the mysteries of life!
数日前に、誘いがあって、ヒマラヤで毛糸を紡いでいる方（うみさん）の話を聞きに行きました。彼女はインドの山の中、羊飼い、毛糸を紡いたり、織物、編み物をしたりする女性の村に住んでいます。彼女の話を聞きながら、私もインドやネパールによく行っていた時の事をたくさん思い出した。
彼女の話は、ノートに書いた”チャプター” に分かれていて、そのチャプターに合わせた写真も同時にたくさん見せてくれました。本当に美しい世界。途中で参加者も順番にあるトピックについて答える、という時間がありました。そのトピックの一つが、手仕事とDNAの結びつきについて。参加者のバックグラウンドが様々で、でも確かに、皆、手を動かす時、土を触ったり、料理をしたり、ちくちく、編み物、する時に幸福感を感じるよね、と同感。あとから思えば、私は洗い物をする時もこの幸福感というか、何か昔の記憶に繋がる様な、事を感じます。これはDNAなのか、本性なのか、自然のリズムの中にいる事でそういう事を感じるのか。。。ちょっとうまく表現ができないのですが、このトピックがとても面白かったです。
それと、今朝、よく考えたら、うみさんは海を渡って、インドへ、知らない土地で自分の手で仕事をしていて。。。私も同じだ！と。なぜ、私の手は絞りや藍染を見つけたのだろう。。。不思議な運命！
それと、そこで食べたスイーツが美味しすぎて。美味しい物を食べた時の幸福感！！！
