Hands

What incredible instruments we carry around:  Hands!!
Fingers, especially... what they do for us.
And what we use them for--mine are pretty well trained to knit, sew, play keyboard music, and... a multitude of other things.


I most noticed my grandmother's hands.  She would proudly hold them up to display how her fingers would point off in different directions--around corners even!  They were an amazing mess, but they produced the best fried walleye, autobiographical stories in her scrawling handwriting, quilting, sewing, knitting, crochet, paintings, cakes, breads, ROLLS (who could forget her rolls?), and...and... the best advice, compassion.  She couldn't surprise me with new projects; that was to be expected. But often she would make, what I consider, progressive-thinking comments about events, people's actions, etc that were totally the opposite of what one would expect from a woman in her 80's or 90's. She was always open to new things.


Yet I most remember her hands... I see them everyday now in my hands!  How surprised she would be to realize that my hands are becoming like hers.  Not only in shape but also by what they produce.  It's as if I can't type fast enough, or knit fast enough, or ... it's our productivity.


Here's a glimpse of my grandmother's hands: (Mine)

And Hers, 26 years ago: