Hmung

I have been thinking a great deal about vocation... having a passion for something.  I don't feel my eyes have led me to photo subjects.  My meditation is ok but I am getting more out of some books and recordings by great teachers about Dharma and the Sutras.  I don't even think I had a career.  I might have helped a few people along the way but I went down many streets while someone paid me.  I had a passion for basketball and skiing but that was my hobby.   I am reading a book, The Road to Character, that highlights the lives of people who developed character and also many a vocation.  I have tried to put principle before personality but it has left me questioning if I can stay attached to several organizations that are neighbor personality or principle driven.
Yesterday I stopped into an exhibit by a woman who was a violin soloist and teacher in Chicago and became interested in the music of the indigenous groups in Asia, the Hmung tribes.  I am going to buy her $65 book not so much for the book, which is very informative but for her life work and her inspiration to myself to start putting the pieces together for my vocation.   As an overall view of her work, while it focused on the music and instruments, she also spent time with their lives...the clothing, the healing, etc.    Here are a few pictures of parts of her display.

There are many rituals in the design of the stitches.  The shapes and configuration are purposeful for protection or to ward off illness

 The cloth over the baby's back has many signs circles, crosses, diamonds to confuse the evil spirits and protect the baby.  Some tribes have more stripes and some more circls

This is how they make the cloth.   the top right ball is crude hemp and the one on the left is ready for weaving.  the middle is a model of the loom ad the bottom is the shuttle used to take the string across the set up string and to add color.