If I Want To Know About Your Life, I’ll Just Look At Your Hands.
Comments(9) I find hands fascinating… 
In my work as a life coach and as a jeweler, I have the occasion to touch and hold many woman’s hands and scrutinize my own in the process.
I think a lot can be learned about a woman from her hands.
- How soft & smooth are they?
- Synthetic nails? Bling? Manicured? Polished? Nail Art?
- Long or short nails?
- Working hands? Cuts, broken nails, rough skin?
- How are the hands used in communication and self expression?
I have often lamented how raggedy my hands are most of the time.
- Broken nails from putting saddles on horses, hooking up horse trailers, working with wire for jewelry
- Calluses where I hold my pliers
- Cuts, scrapes and burns from wire and tools
- Rough skin from all the horse stuff and wire stuff and gardening stuff
- A touch of tendonitis from the thousands of pieces of jewelry I have twisted
- Dry skin from constant scrubbing requiring copious amounts of hand cream
My lifestyle requires a lot from my hands and they serve well. They tell a lot of my story. I guess, raggedy as they are… I like them.
Pretty they most certainly are not. Strong and capable they most certainly are.
My hands touch and create much beauty… does it get much better than that?
What do your hands say about you?
A whole other topic is the quality of a woman’s handshake. That really tells a story about a woman’s self confidence… I’ll save that for another blog post…
I take a look at my hands all the time, and can’t believe how weathered they look. I’ve just started using healing cream, and it’s starting to make a difference already. My mom takes really good care of her hands, and they look really young for her age (85 this year.)Thank you for letting us explore this part of ourselves today.
I look at my hands and feel an incredible sense of love and history in their appearance. I am 62 years young and have 4 grown children and 3 grandchildren. When I look at my hands I see all of the years of holding and caring for the sweet babies I was blessed to share this life with. I see the many decades of tending large organic vegetable gardens. The planting, harvesting and years of having the delicious feeling of my hands in the soil. I also see over 50 years of being an artist, painting the subjects I love the most, women and children in waterscapes. I see my hands often covered with paint while creating the paintings that convey what lives in my heart. I also see the adventure I took at age 51 moving alone to the mountains, building a log cabin and feeling like I could do anything. My body and hands served me well as I learned to chop and split the wood to heat my cabin. It was a time of empowerment for me. I stayed for 2 years and then returned a different woman to rejoin my grown children and move on to new experiences. People say that I look young and that is a nice thing, but they never say that about my hands. I look at my hands and love them for what they are capable of. Their appearance speaks of nurturing, strength and creativity and I am so grateful for all of that.
Thank you Joyce for helping us to look and appreciate at another part of our bodies.
I love my hands they are elegant and long fingered. The nails are strong and unvarnished. I keep my nails quite long as I often use my fingers to scrape away paint or blend colour. There are small calluses on my right hand where I hold my brushes that I like to look at knowing that painting gives me such joy. My hands are often covered in paint .Through I frequently wash my hands along with the brushes etc but little bits of paint remain around the nails, or knuckles. I can see the different colours that I have used during the day and trace back the progress of a painting. Canvas making is a very physical activity and my hands always ache after stretching and pulling the canvas over the wooden frames. I get bruises from the hammer and cuts from the pliers but again feel satisfied knowing that my hands have produced quality canvases to paint on.
I look after my hands keeping the nails in good shape and always put on hand cream. In the winter as I suffer from Reynard’s I wear fingerless mittens indoors to keep my hands warm.
People say I talk with my hands and they are always moving expressively.
Yes I do love my hands – she says waving her hands about !
Love Arabella
When I think about my hands, I think of the line I say sometimes: I was born with a pen in my hand. As a child, I was either drawing or writing. As an adult, I spend more time running a household with my hands. But my passions still remain. I still draw and writing is my mode of creative expression, with my goal of encouraging and refreshing others.
Dawn Herring
JournalWriter Freelance
Wow, what amazing stories of people’s hands! Thank you Joyce for such an awesome opportunity to think about what our hands do for us… holding our child for the first time, holding the hand of the love of our life, petting our loyal and loving animal companion… the list is endless.
Here’s what I do to keep my hands soft, free from hang-nails and healthy…
I use Weleda creamy body wash in a pump soap dispenser and mix it with water 1/2-3/4 for washing (this is the mixture I use for diaper changes as well, for my toddler). I also keep Weleda Calendula Baby Oil next to the sink and use it every time I wash my hands, while they are still a little damp. Weleda Skin Food if they seem dry at all.
These can be replaced with another brand as long as you are sure that they are free from petroleum and perfumes etc.
Be Blessed,
Kim
I enjoyed this article about a person’s hands. I dated one gentleman who once complimented me on my magnificent hands. I personally thought that it was calloused and dry from hard work, yet I try to apply lotion often to keep them soft. I have short cute fingernails. I would love long ones but they keep getting torn off. I’m working at keeping them healthy. My hands have gone through a lot.
It takes me back with a lot of memories. Customers at my mom’s hair salon would comment on how young my mom’s hands look and feel. Another time, my mom would buy lotion for my dad. It was funny because he would avoid it like the plague. My dad has callused hands and likes to keep it that way. Thinks it looks manly!
I’ve always thought that my hands have looked much older than the rest of me. Now the rest of me is catching up to my hands. I think hard work as a house wife did it – lack of care of my hands, too.’Til recently, I really didn’t like the look of my hands and didn’t care for them. Manicures? Maybe once a year. Same with hand lotion.
Then one day, I had an epiphany! I have the hands of an artist! I’ve been an artist since I was 10. And many of the materials can be a little tough on a person’s hands. So I learned to like them and began to take care of them. They still look like they work hard, but I do try to keep them soft and nice. Hands tell a story…..mine say “We’ve been painting and modeling and such for a long time!”
I remember the same thing about my Moms hands also. My are dry, and wrinkly, but I have worked hard all my life. Maybe it just means I have given up caring right now. I just got divorced. My oldest child ignores me becuz we lost our house and I cannot buy the rich things for her like I use too. Now my ex moves back from mass. and my yougest is now moving in with him, becuz he got a loan from his mom and is getting her her own bed/ and bath. I only have one bed, a den and bath. So, she has been sleeping on the coach becuz I have a bad neck and back. I feel heart broken and crushed. Sleeping alot. What can I say. I want to give up, but; I won’t.
Susan/Agoura Hills, Ca.
My hands have not feared work even when my mind did. My fingers are very long to match the rest of me. My hands can be rough or gentle, and my hands love the textures of life. My hands have touched many people, from babies to those going through their transitions, people of every color, gender, age and orientation. My hands know we are all the same love. Some have said my touch was very comforting and my hands really liked that! Thanks Joyce for your magical way of nudging me to love more about me!