Spirit in Action
Hands At Work - Iris Graville
The book "Hands At Work: Portraits and Profiles of People Who Work with Their Hands" combines striking and intimate photography with inspiring prose to talk about work in a way is too often ignored in the USA. This book is a visual meditation to help restore the life to "making a living".
- Broadcast on:
- 30 Aug 2009
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- other
[music] Let us sing the song for the healing of the world That we may hear as one With every voice, with every song We will move this world along And my lives will feel the echo of our healing [music] Welcome to Spirit in Action. My name is Mark Helpsmeat. Each week, I'll be bringing you stories of people living lives Of fruitful service, of peace, community, compassion, Creative action, and progressive efforts. I'll be tracing the spiritual roots that support and nourish them In their service, hoping to inspire and encourage you To sink deep roots and produce sacred fruit in your own life. Let us sing the song for the dreaming of the world That we may dream as one With every voice, with every song We will move this world along Today for Spirit in Action, we're going to travel to the far northwestern corner Of the Continental USA, for a visit with one of the co-authors of a book called Hands at Work, Portraits and Profiles of people who work with their hands. We'll be speaking with Iris Gravel, who penned the words that accompany the wonderful pictures Of hands at work taken by Summer Moon Scriver. The book is inspiration, stands very much as testimony To the possibility of work that is fulfilling, which might be called Right Livelihood. It's a challenge to try to convey via radio The richness of the photography, but we can at least share with you some of the stories And the impact that this kind of witnessed work can have on the way life can be lived. If you want, you can see a couple of the images from the book via Iris and Summer's website Handsworking.com. Iris Gravel will join us by phone today from Washington State. Iris, thanks so much for joining me for Spirit in Action. Thank you. It's my pleasure to be with you. You're at the edge of the Pacific on the coast of Washington State On one of the San Juan Islands, called Lopez Island. How did you end up on Lopez? Oh, I'd like to say that my family and I have fully been making our way up the I-5 corridor To smaller and smaller places, starting in Seattle. And after living there in Seattle for about eight years, We were all weary of the big city life and we moved to Bellingham, Washington. And while we were in Bellingham, we got this kind of crazy idea to spend initially a year, It ended up being two years living in a very remote mountain community in the center of the state At the end of a 55 mile long lake, a little village called Steheeken. And we were there for two years and that was quite a life-changing experience For my whole family, my husband and our two children and I. And after that, we were clear that we wanted to be in a small, fairly remote place, Not quite as remote as Steheeken. And Lopez Island was a place that we had visited over the years. We had friends on Lopez Island and we decided that that was the place that we wanted to go to next And likely to settle long-term as long-term as we've ever managed to do. Lopez Island provided some of the things that we really appreciated about Steheeken In terms of the natural environment and a very small, tight-knit community. And it provided some things that Steheeken didn't, such as a grocery store and telephones And kindergarten through 12th grade school. We're going to talk today about Hands at Work, the book that you, Iris Craville, co-authored with artist photographer Summer Moon Scriver. Both you and Summer live on Lopez. What portion of the people in your book are Lopez residents? Probably 85% of the people are from Lopez Island. And in fact, we could have written another book of the same size or larger With more people from Lopez Island who do various kinds of work with their hands. But we had a very rich community from which to draw and we did. What is the population of Lopez Island? There are about 2,200 full-time residents on Lopez. In the summer people estimate that the population triples with people who have vacation homes Or come for extended periods of time. But the year-round population is 2,200. So let's get right to the book, Hands at Work. Portraits and profiles of people who work with their hands. It's filled with just sumptuous pictures and sumptuous text to accompany those pictures. Can you start out by giving us a sample or a little taste treat? Obviously, you're not going to be able to project any of the photography via the radio waves. But maybe you can describe one of the vignettes, both pictures and words, that's included in the book? Well, first off, thank you for your depiction, your description of the book. I don't think anyone has used that word sumptuous yet. I really like the sound of that. And I think it is an apt description of these larger-than-life photographs of people's hands Engaged in a wide variety of kinds of work. The photographs are black and white and they've been printed in a sepia tone so that there's a lot of warmth to these pictures of people's hands and the materials and tools that they work with. About half of the people presented in the book are artisans, and the other half do other kinds of work with their hands, such as a midwife and a mechanic, a physical therapist, a chef, and a baker. And the stories that accompany the pictures are as much as possible in the people's own words, talking about what their work is, how they do it, why they do it. Many of them talk about the rather long path that it took most of them to get to the work that they do. All of them speak about the joys of their work and the frustrations of their work. The stories provide a real commentary, I think, about work that people find fulfilling, not that it's always easy or without frustration, but without exception all the people in this book are really fulfilled by their work and use words like gratitude for being able to do the work that they do and appreciation for the materials and the tools that they work with. Part of what's not in the book, I noticed, was I don't think I found a single person who was doing data entry on the computer or a person who's handing out change at McDonald's as they work at the counter there. Those weren't included. And my guess was you were aiming at something that was soul work. And I guess you're aiming at work that somehow finds its insolment through the touch of our hands. You're absolutely right. I believe that any kind of work can be soul work. I think that the way we approach our work has a lot to do with that. But I also went into this project, and I know that Summer did as well with her photographer's eye, with a sense that there is something about doing work that involves touch, that really involves a tactile experience. There's something about that that is gratifying in a way that probably other kinds of work aren't, at least not in the same way. And there are plenty of people who do use their hands a lot in their work, but it's not in that same kind of way of creating or producing or healing that we were focusing on with the work that we included in the book. I was wondering, Iris, if you could give us a sample of some of the text that maybe described the pictures and give us a short reading of some of what's included in the book, so people can get closer to what the experience of reading this book is like. Are you able to do that? I'd be happy to. I'll start with an excerpt from one of the Artisans, a weaver. In the story of this weaver, as in most of the profiles, there are several full-page pictures, and the book is 10 inches by 10 inches, so there are several 10 by 10 photographs really focused in on the person's hands. And in the weaver's case, at her loom, with kind of a luminous fiber on her loom, and both of her hands very much in action. She has just sent the shuttle from her right hand, headed towards her left hand. And there are also pictures of her studio and all of the spools of beautiful yarns and wool that she uses. So there are several pictures of her hands, actually, in the process of weaving or doing something related to the weaving. I might say that our process in interviewing people and photographing them was to ask them just to do their work. Summer and I followed around behind them with summer taking pictures and I taking notes as they talked and worked. And as much as possible, summer took photographs of people actually doing the work. They were not posed pictures. So we had the weaver sitting at her loom and working on a shawl, and I'll just read an excerpt of the story about her. There's a knowing in Sheila Metcalf's hands that doesn't come from textbooks. I describe myself as a woman in the textile world, and that links me to women all around the world and throughout history. Weaving is the oldest way to make cloth, she says, as her hands secure in their knowledge efficiently slip the wooden shuttle filled with color and texture from left to right. There are text files still around from 9,000 years ago. That's in my awareness whenever I work, Sheila says. A sense of calm in order pervades her weaving studio. Shelves bear squat spools of wool, cotton, and silk thread organized in a color wheel of blues, yellows, reds, greens, browns, blacks, creams, and whites. Ceramic jars and bowls organize shuttles, needles, and scissors. Hand woven rugs, sprinkles subdued color on the naughty fur floor. A large floor loom dominates half of the studio. The other half is taken up by two smaller ones. Sheila rests her hands on the top threads of her loom. My hands are authentic, kind of rugged. Not fancy, she says. They work hard. They're really my good friends. I love them in the work they do. Her brown eyes go with tears. I have fingernails like my fathers. And you know, every person who came before you is there in your hands. That's an excellent example of what happens when we read the book. We're getting in touch with hands and with hearts, lives, work, family. The book really does give us a sense of connection to livelihood. I invited you to be part of spirit and action. And I clearly felt the presence of spirit and the work to heal the world in this book. When I sat down with the book, what I realized that each of these chapters to this book, focusing on one of these people, is kind of spiritual testimony from the person. How often does the word spirit or spiritual, that kind of thing come up for each person or in each interview that you did? Well, that would be an interesting check to do. Now the computers can do that kind of search. I haven't done that, but I know from having spent so much time with all of these stories and in the interviews, I actually was quite surprised how often those kinds of references came up, particularly because I never explicitly asked people if they felt there was a spiritual dimension to their work. And it almost always just came up in the course of people talking about what their work means to them or why they do it or what kind of attitude they bring to their work. As we met with people and watched them in their work, I think that was this kind of inexplicable essence that came through, and many people did talk about it in those kinds of terms. You mentioned when you saw Summer's artwork there, her photography, that that was the starting point. Could you tell us a little bit more about the process that led to this book? And in that course of that commentary, I'm wondering if you can talk about what motivated, what motivated Summer, what motivated you, Iris, what led to this book being created? About five or six years ago, Summer had an art exhibit at a gallery here on Lopez Island of black and white photographs of people's hands, just the hands, no faces. And I was especially drawn to the images of hands that were doing some kind of work. As I mentioned earlier, Lopez is a very small community. I'm a part of this artist's cooperative and gallery that Summer is, and so I knew her, and I was very familiar with her work. She does wide range of types of photography, landscapes, and portraits. And these images of hands I found especially powerful. As a writer, my medium is words. And when I saw those pictures, I thought, gosh, there's a lot of power in the images, and I think that there's more of the story to be told through words. And I would love to talk with people and understand even more what I felt was there in those images of a passion for work. So I rather naively said to Summer, you want to do a book together, and she equally naively said, sure, naively, because neither of us had done a book up to that time, and didn't really know exactly what we were getting into. But both felt that this was a topic that warranted some more attention and that we would enjoy doing together, combining the talents and the interests that the two of us had. So that was really the seed, and we started out interviewing a potter here on Lopez Island who has been doing this work for over 40 years and has taught pottery and taught art. We met together at her studio, and Summer brought a black backdrop and some lights, and I had my notebook and pen. And we followed Nancy around as she sat at her wheel and moved around her studio. As I said, she was the first person, and my first question to many people was, the working title of this book is Hands at Work. What does that suggest to you? And she responded instantly with, well, I live in my hands, and we were off from there, and she just spoke so eloquently about her passion for her work. When it seems that everyone is worried for themselves, buying plans that fall out shelter, stocking up the shelves, living in the fast lane and staying high at night, thinking that I accidentally blow out all the lights. Look now at the potter whose wheel is spinning around, shaping with her hands a past and future from the ground. Popsid will be filled and drunk, so warm in wintertime, plates and bowls for dinner serve the candlelight and wine. She believes, she believes by her work, it's so easy to see. That the future is more than the following days, its fashion's secure in the flame. Look now at the farmer working in his field, hoping that the sun and rain will guarantee his yield. Like a seed the wind has blown to unfamiliar glow, he waits to see what fate will bring his each year rolls around. He believes, he believes by his work, it's so easy to see. That the future is more than the following days, its fashion's secure in the flame. Elsewhere there are lovers in a warm embrace, happy with their plans to carry on the human race. Now the baby cries and wonders if she's all alone, softly voices reassure they'll always be a home. They believe, they believe by their work, it's so easy to see. That the future is more than the following days, its fashion's secure in the flame. So if you have been worried that tomorrow wouldn't come, look to see the ones whose lives are following the sun. And the hope that springs so clearly from the work they do, will spread a little further when it finds a place in you. We believe, we believe by our work, it's so easy to see. That the future is more than the following days, its fashion's secure in the flame. We believe, we believe by our work, it's so easy to see. That the future is more than the following days, its fashion's secure in the flame. That the future is more than the following days, its fashion's secure in the flame. That's fashion in the clay sung by Sarah Stockwell and the topic is working with our hands. Whether it's the work of the potter or the physical therapist or not a motive technician, a gardener, there's some life enhancement in work done through our hands. We're speaking with Iris Gravel, co-author of Hands at Work, and she's telling us how she and co-author Summer Moonscriber came to create this inspirational book. That was how it began and Summer and I would meet regularly. We had a list of people who we knew who did some kind of work with their hands. Summer had the photographs that she had started out with for that early show. We just kept adding to that list and thinking about the kinds of work that we wanted to portray and to include. People we knew who were doing that kind of work. Some of the kinds of work that we wanted to include and we didn't necessarily know people in our community, but felt that we wanted to find people doing that work and to include them as well. I want to come back to what I asked you before. In your selection of people you did not include a typist or a person making change at McDonald's. Can you put into words a little bit more of why that's not there? I think this relates to spirit and action. A lot of the people you interviewed are artisans as you said, but then you also have a person who's a physical therapist working with their hands in any number of ways that help people. Why is it that the soul is more likely to be found in the artisan than it is in the change maker? I'm not really sure about that. It would be interesting to talk with a change maker or people who sit at keyboards all the time about their work. What I do know from the people that we talked with is that there is something particularly for the artisans about starting with raw materials and creating something that their hands are the tools that are so integral to that creation. I think it's creating something that is a very important part of it. I'm thinking of the stone sculptor and the woodworker who think of their materials have their own life and they feel that part of their work is to bring that out. That's a kind of intimacy with the materials you work with that you don't find certainly in a lot of various jobs that people have. I think that that is a piece of it. Certainly for the people, the physical therapist, massage therapist, an acupuncturist, they're very clear that their work is about healing and that it's through their hands and their touch that they're promoting healing. That's a very powerful and spirit-led type of work that is really intimate as well. The baker and the chef both talked about how important preparing food is for creating community, bringing people together around food as well as the healthy nutritional aspects of food that they really pay attention to the ingredients. Muffin warm and basket brown, smiling faces gathered round our dinner table, close together hand in hand. I always cook with honey, 'cause we do not deny. We always cook with honey. Tell me how's your appetite for some sweet love. Find them favor with your neighbor. Well, it can be so fine. It's easier than part to be kind. We've been searching for so long. Now house is turned into a home. 'Cause I always cook with honey, 'cause we turn up the night. We always cook with honey. Tell me how's your appetite for some sweet love. 'Cause I always cook with honey, 'cause we turn up the night. We always cook with honey. Tell me how's your appetite for some sweet love. We always cook with honey. Tell me how's your appetite for some sweet love. Well, our door is always open, and there's surely room for more. Cooking where there's good love is never any choice. So come and get to know us. There'll be a place such as for you. Sweet wine before dinner that is surely bound to soon. I always cook with honey, 'cause we turn up the night. We always cook with honey. Tell me how's your appetite for some sweet love. 'Cause I always cook with honey, 'cause we turn up the night. We always cook with honey. Tell me how's your appetite for some sweet love. I always cook with honey, 'cause we turn up the night. I hope you enjoyed that song by Judy Collins, Cook with Honey, and it's very much on the topic of the book, Hands at Work. One of the profiles in the book is that of a baker, along with photos and text, profiles of a chef, weaver, blacksmith, boat builder, many other folks. We're talking with Iris Gravel, co-author of Hands at Work, about what is different about the work represented in these profiles. You know, one thing that struck me with each story that I read was that each of these people is doing this thing. Certainly, a number of them are making living off of it, but they would be doing it even if there was absolutely no money involved in it whatsoever. I think that there's the biblical quotation that you can't serve both God and Mammon. Sometimes, when you're serving God, Mammon comes along also. But the service of someone who's working at the counter at McDonald's is very clearly there there to make money. The person who's making an oboe as one of your featured artists is, he's doing that very significant degree out of love. Does that fit at all, even with the automotive technician that you include in your book? I think it does. I'm not sure that the automotive technician would say that about himself, but from having spoken with him and watching him at work and having him work on our cars. I think that that is true. There is a passion that they all have that I think many people in our country really yearn for. They don't feel excited about going to work or they don't feel a kind of fulfillment at the end of the day that I heard over and over again from people. You're absolutely right. There are some of them that have a day job so that they can do this other kind of work with their hands. That's really what they live for. They really get their satisfaction out of work by having this work that feeds them in a more spiritual or emotional way than the work that they get paid to do. Of course, with spirit and action, Iris, I'm always looking for things that are going to help heal the world, somehow help the world on a journey in a positive way. And can you put in your own words how you hope this book is going to make the world a better place, how this is going to help move the world in direction and toward a vision that will be healthier and more sane for our world? Most of us spend a great portion of our lives at work. I think that the world would be a much better place if most of us, if not all of us, felt that that time we were spending at work was doing something that was meaningful and that was what we were supposed to be doing with our lives. The action of the people in this book is not the kind of spirit and action I think of activists who are working for peace or working to end injustice or address injustices in the world. But they are pursuing what I think of as right livelihood, which is work that they feel contributes something positive to the world and that is a gift that they have to share with the world. I think that we all would benefit in the world if people were as much as possible doing that kind of work as opposed to work that either didn't feed them personally, spiritually and particularly work that they knew was harmful to other people or was exploiting other people or exploiting resources. So I think that these folks provide some good examples of how it is possible that work can be a positive force in individuals' lives and in the world. And my hope is that by reading these stories, readers will look at their own work and if they're not feeling the kind of contentment and satisfaction and joy in their own work, that they'll consider if maybe there's something different that they want to be doing with all those many hours that they spend at work. See all there is just to be your life above, look all around you, please look all around you, see all there is just to be in a life of our life. is more than our work and our work is more than our job and our life is more than our work. And our work is more than our job. Think how your life could be, feel how your life could go. If just for once you could get to the letting go, think how your life could be, feel how your life could go. If just for once you could let yourself go, oh, our life is more than our work. And our work is more than our job and our life is more than our work and our work is more than our job. Think how your life could go. Is more than our job and our life is more than our work and our work is more than our job. Is more than our work and our work is more than our work and our work is more than our work. Think how your life could go. How very true our life is more than our work. That's by Charlie King and we're talking with Iris Gravel about her book, Hands at Work. I want to make it clear to our listeners that I'm not putting down the people who work at McDonald's or any other kind of a job like that. Some people, I think, do find their vocation in such job. And I personally, I'll say for myself, I take such a joy at greeting people as they come in. I love holding doors for people just so I can greet them. And so whether I'm doing that just as I walk somewhere down the street or going into school or anywhere or whether I was doing that as a greeter at Walmart, I could do that as a vocation. So I do want to say that it's not that McDonald's is a bad place. I am saying specifically that I think the vast majority of people working there are working there only for the money and they haven't found their soul element in there. So it doesn't have to be a pot or an oval maker or a baker to have a sense of vocation. I imagine there's plenty of bakers who are doing it for the dollars and just can't wait to get out of there. You're absolutely right. And that was a concern that I had about this book as well of not wanting it to be at all interpreted that this work is somehow better than other or that other kinds of work that people are doing is not valuable because I do think that there are just so many ways that we can express ourselves, can share our gifts in the world. And people have very different opportunities to do that. But it was very clear to me that these folks, the way that they did that and what was their gift and their way to express that was through this work that they do with their hands. And they and we I think are blessed by that. I want to ask you some things Iris about your background led you to creating this book and to have the vision that you have about what's healthy for the world. I'd mentioned that a number of the people who are highlighted in the book are probably what you would call living alternative lifestyles. I think there's a fair number of ponytails on the men and I think there's people who would probably want to live off the grid or people who lived in a sailboat for three years instead of living what has been held up as the American dream. So what got you to the point where these are the kind of people who you see as having something vital to speak to people right now as they make their decisions about work? My first career was as a nurse. That was my education and the way I both made my living and I feel it was my ministry in the world was as a nurse for about 25 years. And I worked in public health and I discovered as I was working on this book that it was really as a nurse that I first began listening to people's stories. A big part of any kind of healing work and certainly nursing is listening to people talk about their illness or their injury and it's their stories, hearing their stories. I worked primarily in public health with a great number of poor people and people struggling with lots of health issues and other kinds of issues related to poverty and I listened to a lot of those stories. And even before I thought of myself as a writer, I was aware how important those stories were and how important it was to be listened to. And as I began doing more writing, I have really come to believe that everybody has a story, that everybody's story is important. In fact, I think some of the most important stories are of people whose stories often aren't told and often aren't heard. That has been reinforced for me as I've done some service work in Latin America, particularly in Nicaragua and some of the stories that I have heard from people who have endured generations of natural disasters and political strife and violence. I think those stories are so important and so instructive and they often aren't the ones that make the headlines or that get told. So in my writing, I have come to believe that that is part of my ministry is telling those stories and in this book, I think it was an unexpected gift that I gave to the people in the book to have their stories told. Many of them expressed gratitude for being listened to the way that I listened to them and being watched the way Summer and I watched them and being able to really explore and put into words what this work means to them. So my journey as a writer, at first I thought it didn't really make a lot of sense going from nursing to writing, but I've come to realize that it does. This is just another way that I'm listening to people's stories and telling the stories. And I do believe that that listening, as we've seen with a number of approaches such as compassionate listening, listening to each other is a way to promote peace. And it's such an important skill and I'm grateful that as a writer, I get to do that. That's really a requirement of my work that I listen well and validate what people have to say. So that has been some of my journey. I began to really identify myself as a writer after I attended a writing as ministry workshop at Pendle Hill, led by Tom Mullen. And it was during that week long workshop that I went through some kind of shift of my identity of what my ministry is and what my work is and who I am. I think that that probably was the beginning of recognizing a different leading. You mentioned going to the workshop with Tom Mullen at Pendle Hill. We'll mention that that is a Quaker Retreat Center outside of Philadelphia. How long were you there? Is this just a weekend type thing that you bought in for or had you spent some time at Pendle Hill? That particular workshop was a week long workshop of, I hesitate to call it lectures by Tom because he was a very entertaining and informal teacher. But he certainly did do a lot of teaching about writing and writing as a ministry. And then there were periods of time during the day that we would write and then we also met with him individually and he critiqued and worked with us on some individual writing at that workshop. The piece that I was working on at that time ultimately was published in Friends Journal, a Quaker publication, and it's a story called Finding the Way Through. It's a personal essay about what that time living in Stehegan in that remote mountain village was all about. And now, 13 years later, I'm continuing to explore that experience and developing it into a full-length memoir that I think is going to be a spiritual memoir. This time I'll be telling my own story instead of other people's stories. And it is important to have ourselves listen to as well, I guess, from time to time. Right, right. And to follow up on your question about my time at Pendle Hill, that week long workshop there certainly kindled a dream to spend a longer time there. And about three years ago, my husband and I were fortunate to be able to be resident students, as they're called, for a 10-week term at Pendle Hill. And it was certainly fortuitous time for us. One of the courses that we took was called the Surinar Calls, which was the perfect opportunity to step back and look at the work that both of my husband and I were doing. And it was a time that I was really exploring more deeply if I was being led to work to a ministry as in writing. And then another course was a book arts course, and it was more the creative arts aspect of combining words and images, which fit very much with where I was feeling led, both as a writer and as an artist. So it was a rich time kind of away from the rest of the responsibilities of life in a supportive environment with other people doing similar kinds of seeking. And it was a good experience for both of us and really helped to root me in this work that I'm doing now as a writer. I meant to mention this earlier, Iris, but I have a couple different visions of ways that this book can or maybe should be used, one of which is to take each chapter as a meditation. And so for the morning meditation, maybe to sit, read, and then just take a period of silence, maybe where you're looking at the pictures, and just sit and see if it has any implications for your life. So as a meditation tool, I certainly think that this book belongs on a lot of coffee tables because when people come in and sit down and have time to just be present, it's certainly a way to fill up our cups which gets so depleted in this life. Those are my visions. How did you see this book as being used? I thought of it in much the same way, although it wasn't until the book was very nearly done and we had spent a lot of time working with our designer on the layout of the book that I really had that image or that reality that in fact, it could be used in that way. I knew all along that I wanted these stories to stand alone, that they could be read in their entirety, each story on its own, and that it would be meaningful all by itself. And as we were working on the final layout and the designer's artistry in combining the words and the images, it was clear to me then that it really was going to be an inspirational type book for people and that the stories were the right length that people could, in a very small amount of time, get a little dose of inspiration. So I'm so grateful to hear that you found it to work in the same way for you. People typically pick up this book and thumb through it and the pictures just grab you immediately. I just think they're so compelling and the focus on the hands is different from what we usually find in books of photography. And then I've been honored and pleased to hear people talk that as they delve into the stories that those have moved them equally. Again, the book we're talking about is Hands at Work. It's co-authored by Iris Gravel, who is with us here today on the phone, and her co-author, Summer Moon Scriver. They're both habitants of Lopez Island off the coast of Washington State. You don't see yourself as having succeeded from the Union or anything by being out in the water, have you? No, not at all. There are some people here who talk about going to the mainland as going to America, but we are very well connected and very much a part of the U.S. way of life. And it may be a little more laid back here and more in tune with the natural world around us, but we are very well connected to the rest of the world. You know, another way that I think that this book can be viewed, it doesn't have the word God in it even once that I found. But I do have the sense that the spiritual stories are inspirational to us in the same way that maybe a series of stories of prophets, each working in their own way, doing their own little miracles. So one way that I could see this is as a devotional book where each chapter with the testimony of these people through their hands is a way for people to sit down with devotionally and read and get inspiration from that changes their lives. That would be wonderful if people used it in that way. And I do think there is a yearning for that. There have been a number of books that have come out recently. I'm thinking of Matthew Crawford's shop class as soul craft and also a work that had quite an influence on me was Matthew Fox's The Re-Invention of Work. I think for quite some time people have yearned for their work, their livelihood to be something that they feel called to or in some way they're carrying out what is most important to them in their lives. And I think that the people in this book certainly have done that. And again, I want to emphasize that they all talk about the struggles and the frustrations. And I know for all of them there are days that it's really the last thing they want to be doing is going out to their shop or to their studio or into the clinic room with a patient. Everybody feels that way at some time no matter how rewarding their work is. But there is that overall sense that comes through in all of their stories of what a gift it is to be able to have found and do work that you feel is meaningful. I know I take hope and inspiration from reading stories of people who are able to express things that are important in their lives. And I can relate that to my own life. So if these stories do that for other people, to me that would be one of the best things that could come out of it. And using it in a meditative way, particularly if people are struggling about their work, hopefully this would be something that would be of some nourishment for people. You're listening to Spirit in Action. This is a Northern Spirit radio production. You can always find these programs again via my website, NorthernSpiritRadio.org. We're in ORG.com. This isn't about money. This is about Spirit, which is the objective. We're visiting today with Iris Gravelle. She and her co-author, Summer Moonscriver, produced a book called Hands at Work, portraits and profiles of people who work with their hands. You can find it via their website, handsworking.com. You can also, of course, again find a link to that from my website, NorthernSpiritRadio.org. They're both residents of Lopez Island, just off the coast of Washington State. I had a few more questions for you, Iris, one of which is what about your own spiritual identity, who you grew up to be and who you are. I think this is related to your writing. I think it's what made you be a nurse. Can you give us a little bit of background on yourself so that we know a little bit more of your spiritual character as opposed to your mastery with words, which is clearly testified in the book? Thank you. I grew up in the Midwest, Chicago, and then southern Illinois. I grew up in the Lutheran Church, much of that time in the Missouri Senate Lutheran Church. As a young adult, like many people, I began to question some of the things that I had learned in the church, and particularly my perception that for many people in the church that I grew up in, what we did on Sunday and what we did the rest of the week, were very separate. Didn't relate to each other. As a young adult, that started to just not make sense for me and didn't work for me. And even though I didn't use that language at the time, I can see now very easily that my decision to go into nursing was a calling. I was led to that after thinking that I was going to be an English major. I had one of those moments of clarity that I realized what I really wanted to do was to be a nurse. And later on, I came to view that as the leading. It was a really good avenue for me to integrate what I saw as my spiritual path and my face of caring for people and providing some kind of service in the world that would promote health and promote healing. And for many years, I really felt that I was really blessed to have that kind of work that seemed so integrated to me with my faith journey and the work that I could do in the world. Having been disillusioned in the Lutheran church, but still wanting some kind of a faith community to be a part of. In the mid 70s, I got to know a group of people in the inner city in Southern Indiana, Evansville, Indiana, who shared a similar vision of work and life and ministry being all of the same cloth. And I became involved with that group. It became known as Patchwork Central, an intentional Christian community along the lines of sojourners in Washington, D.C., of people living in the inner city and working together around issues of poverty and injustice. In fact, I recently heard on the Spirit in Action interview with Shane Clayborn and the work that he and his community are doing in Philadelphia. And it just sounded very reminiscent of the group that I was involved with in Southern Indiana now over 30 years ago. And it was through that community that part of my contribution to the community and the sharing of resources that we did was I worked part time as a visiting nurse in the inner city. And then in this intentional community, we were also involved in some community outreach and public health type services in this neighborhood that had been really disenfranchised from a lot of city services. So I did that for many years and then eventually went on to graduate school and got a master's in community health nursing because by that time, I knew that the way that I wanted to practice nursing was in public health and working with underserved and unserved populations. For many years, that was really gratifying work for me. It was stressful and demanding and often heartbreaking and it felt like the work that I had been led to do. And when I went to graduate school, that was at the University of Washington in Seattle and that and my husband's decision to go back to school to become a sign language interpreter was what took us to Seattle. And it was in Seattle where we were looking for a faith community after having come out of this intentional community in southern Indiana. We ended up at a Quaker meeting largely because of our experience with the American Friends Service Committee and the service part and peace efforts of Quakers. I had to go to a Quaker meeting and that was in 1981 and like so many Quakers, I've gotten to know over the years. We had that same experience of feeling that we were at home and that that was our spiritual home. And it has remained so through several moves and it was one of the factors in our decision to move to Lopez Island was that there was a small Quaker worship group here that met every week in people's homes. So that has been central part of my spiritual journey and Quakerism is a place where I feel that I can have that integration that I was looking for in my early 20s of daily life and spiritual practice work community all being part of the same fabric. That's quite a journey and I'm so happy to have met you with respect to this book and of course the fact that my program is carried there on Lopez Island. I hope that that's a gift to your community. It's certainly a gift to me to be able to know that there's people on the far reaches of our continent who are listening to the spiritual journeys, the world healing work that my guests share. And so I want to thank you Iris and of course Summer also your co-author for producing hands at work portraits and profiles of people who work with their hands. The website again is handsworking.com and you can find it via my site, northernspiritradio.org. Thank you so much Iris for joining me today for spirit and action. Well thank you Mark you're very welcome and it was my pleasure to talk with you and to your listeners and to feel a part of this community that you have created on the radio and you do have a loyal following here on Lopez with our low frequency radio but many of us stream your program and sometimes we pass around CDs of your program so as I said we may be way out here at the end of the continent but we feel really connected to folks all over through your radio program who are leading spirit led lives and we appreciate your work in bringing those stories to us. Thanks again Iris. That was Iris Gravel co-author of Hands at Work and let's take you out today for spirit and action with a song about hands doing the spirit's work on earth. It's Carol Johnson's song "I Have No Hands but Yours". Our own weary from this struggle and weak from growing old. I have no voice but yours with which to see to let my children know that I am up and up is everything. I have no way to feed the hungry souls. No clothes to give and make it a ragged and the morn. So be my heart, my hand, my tongue through you and we'll be done. Fingers have I none to help and die. The tangled knocks and twisted chains and strangled fearful minds. I have no one but you to clean the nails. When the glory redistro the land that I've so richly missed. I have no lights but yours with which to dance. No way to show my faith on this unless you take a chance. I have no way to open people's eyes except that you will show them how to trust the inner mind. So be my heart, my hand, my tongue through you and we'll be done. I have no higher cause for you than this. To love and serve your neighbor, enjoy in selflessness. To love and serve your neighbor, enjoy in selflessness. The theme music for this program is "Turning of the World" performed by Sarah Thompson. This spirit in action program is an effort of Northern Spirit Radio. You can listen to our programs and find links and information about us and our guests on our website, northernspiritradio.org. Thank you for listening. I am your host Mark Helpsmeet and I welcome your comments and stories of those leading lives of spiritual fruit. May you find deep roots to support you and grow steadily toward the light. This is spirit in action. With every voice, with every song, we will know this world alone. With every voice, with every song, we will move this world alone and our lives will feel the echo of our healing. (upbeat music)