A soul-shaking experience encountered through Japanese calligraphy

Calligraphy 

Today I will write about an experience I had last year. I have always heard about calligraphy, and see my students having classes, but when my mother visited Japan, I wanted to give her a special gift that was of a japanese style. I decided to give her a calligraphy writing to take back home with her to Jamaica. 

Japanese calligraphy with a brush and ink.

I know a lady who has been teaching calligraphy for a number of years. She is an expert at the craft . I asked her if she could  help me with the gift I wanted. She was more than happy to help. So we set up a meeting time and date for when she would help me. 

We went into the room, she helped me set up the tools, and then we started. I did my best at the limited knowledge and skill I knew, and completed a piece for my mom. 

The last piece, she asked me what I wanted to write?  I told her the character for “dream”. She said ok, I’ll hold the brush with you and we can write it together. Little did I know, my life would have changed forever thereafter. 

We held the brush together, and to this day, it is still one of the most powerful and moving  experiences I have had in my life. When we were writing it, I felt this feeling of me not being alone,  like I was being guided through all the trials of life with someone holding my hands. I felt waves of emotions flow through me as I have never felt before. Each brush stroke brought a different feeling, sometimes it was powerful, sometimes it was gentle, sometimes it was light, sometimes it was fast or slow, I couldn't believe I could feel each brush stroke permeating through me. Tears came to my eyes as I was overwhelmed by all these emotions and feelings. 

The final product. Dream is what is written in the kanji character.

After we were done, I had to take a deep breath, to try to calm down and return to my normal self. We created a beautiful piece that I will treasure forever. I told her thank you so much, and told her what I experienced. She wasn't surprised at all, and was so happy that I was able to feel and experience that. 

I still can't believe there is so much power in a brush and ink. From then, I truly began to respect and be grateful for such a beautiful art which many people have been practicing since ancient times. 

I hope I can experience that again someday. I am not sure if I will be able to experience writing by myself, but it has truly inspired me to start to learn calligraphy as a new hobby and way of life. 

Thank you for reading all the way to the end. If you have had a similar experience with calligraphy, do let me know.