A long time ago, everything and everybody were a part of everything and everybody else. People and animals could talk to each other because we were all children of the Earth. We were born of her. We moved together with consideration for each other, and in those times as we breathed in the Po-wa-ha, the water, wind, breath, we know how to be beautiful. We breathed in the Po-wa-ha deeply with respect and beauty flowed through us, through our hands, through our beings and the way we knew beauty. We could make beautiful homes, pots, baskets, mantas, shoes, anything we needed.

Everyday living was about doing; about making things. It was about thinking good thoughts and using our hands to make whatever we needed for living, for eating, working, walking, praying. We were told to walk, talk, and act carefully. We knew that all of us, every one of us could do that; could think and act carefully and thoughtfully and that we could then make whatever we needed.

Life was about making beauty. Bringing harmony into our lives that we could know the clouds. So that we could be like the clouds. In that way, we ourselves were beautiful, as beautiful as the butterflies and the clouds.

Here at the Poeh, these old rhythms of live and ways of making beauty are still important. People bring beauty through interactions, though doing, talking, laughing trough quietness, gentleness and caring.

Here competition is not important as seeing rhythms and patterns of another person’s hands showing their own sense of beauty. Here we know that everyone can make their own beauty with love, care and laughter

Rina Swentzell