When my book, Crochet Saved My Life, first came out Rayela of TAFA did a post about it. I wanted to share an excerpt from that post today because I love what she had to say.
“I told Kathryn that the closest experience I have had to the experience of prayer or meditation is when I am engaged in the making of something. I enter this other place where I almost feel transported and the world falls away. Or, perhaps a particular part of the world becomes zoomed in on, as if in a strange focal lens. Others have also said the same, “Sewing saved my life.” or “If I don’t create, I will go insane.” I don’t think it matters if it’s crochet or another act of creation, for some of us there simply is no choice.
I once met a nun in Chicago who worked with mentally ill people at a clay studio. The pieces these people came up with were amazing! Faces with three eyes, bodies with two heads, twisted forms … There the work truly gave a language to what was experienced on the inside, but even the repetition of a needle and thread, of stitches on cloth, or baking and gardening – there is something important about working with your hands to release mental stress.”
How does working with your hands help you in your life? What does it do for you?
