Touch

I have recently been quietly fascinated with hands. And it's not because of David Duchovny in Zoolander (though, the guy has some nice hands, I'll give him that). These two objects which, for each human being, take up the space of less than a steering wheel, a Sunday Newspaper, The War On Drugs' newest Vinyl, or an open book, are the definers of movement, of feeling, of sentiment and of a gentle longing or the greatest of desires. 

I thought about this as I rubbed my arms with moisturiser tonight. I was awarding my body with self love, I wasn't rough with my skin, gently massaging the cream into my skin and immediately feeling comfort. My hands, in this capacity, brought me satisfaction and into a state of balance once again after a windy, Winter's day where I was exposed to the elements. 

I thought about this as I drank wine in the bath. It was poured for me during dinner, and as he continued on doing work, I found the opportunity for the glass to follow me into the tub and allow me to relax after a hectic week of study and planning for the next of my stints overseas.

And when I shivered with cold the other night in bed, there were hands, arms even, wrapped around me to keep me warm, nestled, still. These hands were a safety net, a reassurance, a enveloping of doubts, fears and anxieties that often, without them, my mind would be filled with late into the night.

Hands beckon, they resist, they tantalise, nurture and celebrate. They speak an entire language that so often our mouths do not comprehend nor speak. Yet this language is universal. It is understood better than any sound or dialect. And perhaps in that simple

They are also cruel, distant, and hurtful. We are cold with our hands, their focus now on objects of communication with others, rather than the beauty of communication with others in a tactile way. And this, sadly, takes away their capacity to be loving, celebratory and potently irresistible members of our bodies and our world.

So I'm putting down my phone, because then my hands are free to roam.