Today’s post is the first in an occasional series about our senses and how they help us appreciate and create beauty.
If you’ve ever thought about how important your hands are to your daily life, raise one of them.
The human hand is more than "the body part at the end of your arm that includes your fingers and thumb”.
Our hands are truly amazing.
I may shake your hand, lend you a hand, or give you a hand. I may buy something you’ve made by hand.
You may hand the salt to your dinner companion, hand off a project or file to your co-worker, or give a hand-out to a person in need.
You may be handy around the house, and I may be on hand to help you out.
Fans at a football game might get out of hand when the opposing team gets the upper hand.
As you can see, I could throw around hand phrases all day, but I'll stop there. Why are there so many phrases in English that are associated with the word hand?
Maybe because our hands are so important to us.
We use our hands constantly in many different ways. The human hand has five fingers and 27 bones, plus one or more sesamoid bones. A complex and delicate system of bone, muscle, joints, blood vessels, and nerves, the hand can grasp, hold, carry, move, squeeze, support, wave, and more.
All of this adds up to this: the hand is a thing of beauty. An amazing creation that can do marvelous things.
And because the fingers are loaded with nerve endings, they are the richest source of tactile, or sense of touch, information that we have. Through our hands, we can feel the texture of a woven chair, a silk dress, a leather book, a cantaloupe rind, the skin of a loved one. We can take in beauty through our hands.
Not only are they beautiful themselves, your hands can also be a catalyst for beauty. How? Here are a few ideas.
Seven ways to more beauty using your hands:
1. Plant a flower or a garden and tend it.
2. Pick up a paintbrush, a lump of clay, or a piece of wood, and create something.
3. Draw or photograph a favorite scene or moment, and give it to someone else.
4. Get ride of the clutter in one area of your house or workspace, and replace it with one item you love from a different area.
5. Sit down at a piano or pick up an instrument and share a piece of music with someone else. If you aren’t a musician, share a favorite song from your playlist.
6. Cook a meal full of flavor and color, and enjoy it with those you love or someone new.
7. Grab a pen, write a short (or long) “thinking of you” kind of note, and send it to someone who needs encouragement.
What are some other ways to bring beauty into our lives by using our hands? Leave me a comment below or on social media by clicking one of the buttons in the footer at the bottom of this or any page.