Hands

We take our hands for granted, don't we? We drive, care for ourselves and others, we make a living, we pay our bills, we even create bills with our hands.

Some years ago I was injured and lost the use of my right hand for a few weeks. Since I am a trained right-hander, I just used my left hand at work; no problem! It was then however, that I began to realize how important my hands are -- like every other part of my body. From time to time over the past years I've thought about hands until one day I heard the performance of a poem called "Whose Hands are These?" It talks about the hands that rocked the cradle, hands that raised families, our sister's hands, our father's hands, our aunt's hands and so on. These are the familiar hands in our lives but what about those hands that have sacrificed for us that we will never meet? Think about it!

I have not been able to get this poem out of my mind so I decided to create a design that begins to express my gratitude to some of the hands in my life: My father's hand, my mother's hand and my children's hands.