Sometimes I come across something that simply overtakes my senses, moving me to giddy stillness and awe. Today it was this video on Instagram, showing a lone woman demonstrating a traditional wax resist dyeing technique. It was unusually long for an Insta video, and mesmerized me for the entirety. I sent it to multiple people with the message, “Friends–the art, and the FITNESS!”
With a serene and joyful expression throughout, the woman squats to harvest two large baskets of leaves from the ground. She hoists the baskets connected with a bamboo pole onto her shoulder and transports them on foot. After transferring them to large vats to soak, she dead lifts large rocks to weigh them down in the water to make fabric dye. I realize this may not be how it’s really done–a single person doing all of this work. Still, the functional movements here strike me. Modern urban life has relegated us to sit for hours at desks deep indoors, and the most we may ever do is walk a few feet at a time, unless we formally train or travel. Putting my carry-on in the overhead bin approximates a dead lift, lat pull, and shoulder press in series, and that is nothing compared to what these artisans do in their daily lives.
We know how physical activity benefits the body–thickening brain networks required for neuromuscular coordination, sustaining clear cognition with age, and maintaining cardiovascular, muscular, and bone strength and resilience. And to do it outside–with this view every day–imagine how this feels, body, mind, and soul! Watch the whole video–can you not sense the energy of it move something deep within you? What does it inspire?
Imagine the patience it takes to be a maker like this–any artists reading this must be rolling their eyes, duh. While the dye ferments, she draws the entire phoenix pattern and applies wax by hand with fine implements. It reminds me of the parable of two cathedral bricklayers, one who resents the back breaking work because he focuses on what is, and the other who relishes it by imagining what could and will be. Once again I marvel at the dedication, perseverance, and commitment shown in this woman’s painstaking work.
How motivating, when you start to see your creation emerge in its intended form? These days we are spoiled by instant gratification of digital photos on our phones, carried in our pockets and available in seconds. Remember film cameras? To take 24 photos, retract the entire roll, submit it for development, and not know for weeks whether any turned out the way we wanted, with no chance to repeat the shots… that wires our brains differently. How can we train for this kind of delayed and enhanced gratification in modern life? We appreciate and value of things more the harder we work to acquire or acheive them; we take less for granted. And that makes us humble, generous, and slower to dismiss. We live deeper lives, I think, and this video reminds me.
Consider how far most of our daily lives occur from nature. Imagine if your work required you to step into white waters, hang onto your creation lest the river sweep it away, and work in collaboration with the earth to bring forth your art for the world? When our creations depend on the natural environment, it broadens our perspective, teaches us how little we control. How humbling and also inspiring, to participate with nature in making something new?
This video ignites something strong for me–at once cognitive, limbic, and visceral. Epic vistas, resonant music, and a lone human both lifting heavy loads and creating grand art all conspire to incite a deep sense of awe and appreciation for all that we are capable of–Earth and humans alike. It feels like a simultaneous dopamine and serotonin hit, moving me to share immediately with friends, thus also giving me that surge of oxytocin I so live for.
The woman in the video does everything apparently alone. But we know this production required a team in community, from the planters of the field to pavers of the path, to makers of tools and appliances, to filmmakers. Let us all remember that as much as we may think and feel we operate independently from others, this is rarely the case. Nature always interacts, always intersects, overlaps, merges, and moves in both confluence and opposition. Life is a dance of it all. How literally and figuratively moving!
As we enter autumn, the season of exhalation and shedding of layers, preparing for contraction and rest, let us draw near to that which nourishes us, body, mind, and spirit. This includes art, fitness, and connection in all forms.
Wishing all in the US a happy long holiday weekend! Thank you, friends, for continuing on this journey of discovery and reflection with me all this time.
Many thanks and much love to friend Kasey McKenney for helping me think through the turning of seasons from a Traditional Chinese Medicine perspective.
Healing Through Connection 