Sensitivity: the quality of recognizing subtle changes, signals, or influences, whether environmental, social, or personal. A sensitive person is alive to the feelings of others, and absorbed by their own.

Sensitivity is at times ridiculed as thin-skinned, or viewed of as weak. I rarely show my sadness except through my creative work. A sadness that I hold from view yet long to share.

An open heart and mind easily forgives, but finds it hard to easily forget.

Making well requires my complete involvement. I must be fully immersed in what I do, not for my own ends, but in the service of what is being made. Take these words. Each word must mean and sound with the purpose of conveying a single idea: making well requires the duality of self and other.

Put another way, to make a sound I must move. The sound requires me. However, the sound is not me, it is the other, something that becomes outside of me. I cannot make well when I think only of myself.

Take: reach for and hold, with body and mind.

Care: a state of mind and an action of the body that seeks the health, welfare, and protection of someone or something. I may care for an idea and experience as much as for something I can touch.

If I take care only of myself I feel unsatisfied, hollow, empty. The beauty of taking care outside of myself is that I feel, far more. Whatever strength and resilience I have is born through the caring of others.