The Potholders From House Of Hearts in India Have Arrived

It was raining all day, but the box of potholders that Soma sent from India was under the porch and dry.

I didn’t expect it to get here so quickly.

I haven’t had a chance to really think about it, how this box came all the way from India.  From Soma’s village, Soma’s house, where I was just a couple of months ago.

I held those feeling in check as I cut the packing tape and opened the box.  Color, color jammed packed with color.  All different patterns, each one unique.  Suddenly I was back in the sewing room in Soma’s house.  In my mind I could see the women there making each potholder.  Choosing the fabric, cutting the shapes, and sewing them together.

Can I really feel the joy they had in  making them?  Because they look like fun.  Or am I just imagining it?  A riot of colors spilling from the box, the potholders are actually noisy.  I’ve never heard something made of fabric before.  I’ve never even thought of hearing fabric.  It’s not something I would make-up, so it must be true.

And now I know that there’s something special happening here.

I can sense it will all my being.  That connection that I felt to Soma and the women working at House of Hearts, I lost it when I left India.  Kept reaching for it in my facebook communications with Soma.  I thought it was gone, but it’s back again. Back with the potholders, the fabric, the sewing.  Because that’s where we came together.   The fabric and the sewing  is our common language.  The potholders our passport.

Tomorrow I’ll bring the box of potholders to  my studio.  I’ll sit on the floor and take each one out and look at it.  I’ll pile them up around me, and sit surrounded by them.  Feeling their empowering power,  the hope that is imbued in them by the women who made them.

The hope and belief  that we can make this work together.

(I will post the potholders for sale on my blog tomorrow.  They are $15 each + shipping.)