Hands are frequently a symbol used by massage therapists, and recently by the Society for Oncology Massage to indicate what we do. For most therapists, hands are the key to practice, as they ARE our tools, rather than many professions (musicians, auto mechanics, administrative assistants) who use their hands to manage the tools of their trades.
Joyce Sequichie Hifler wrote this as her meditation for Dec 5 in Cherokee Feast of Days:
Our hands tell who we are. They are believed to be perfect subjects of the mind. As physical labor shows in the callouses on our palms, so does gentleness or greediness or strength. Nothing else expresses human behavior in so many ways. With our hands, tsu no ye ni, we work, play love, threaten, show joy or grief. Sensitive symbols of faith and friendship, our hands draw to us everything and everyone we love. Marvelously made and directed by the minds' eye, the mind's ear, and the heart's desire, our hands continually express our lives. An abusive hand is from an abusive mind. But the gentle touch does exist--even for those who have yet to experience it. What words cannot say, the hands can express with all tenderness and love.
Last spring I attended a life-changing workshop on Caring for Clients with Cancer, and then joined the Society for Oncology Massage, a new professional organization promoting the benefits of massage for people recently diagnosed, undergoing treatment, or survivors of cancer. It is the direction my massage is moving toward, and it is the tenderness and love that I think is one of the essential components needed to add to the terrific medical care given to people with cancer.
I'm looking forward to the new challenge
