The Self Improvement and NLP Blog - learning a new skill this month

Hi good day friends
I have been busy making money and learning new skills. Recently a friend asked me about gift wrapping and that she commented that paper wrapping is so out- of -date and so boring. She said why don't we learn the Japanese art of Furoshiki? Wow, sounds great isn't it? Just the name already so high sounding - surely the art of cloth wrapping as it is known in English must be equally fantastic and fun.

Indeed, yes, yes yes. It was fun and exciting. No wonder the Japanese are so well known for their gifts and their wonderful ways of presenting gifts which may not be expensive but look very expensive and refined. The receivers are always so happy to receive the gifts because they are so wonderfully and carefully wrapped not with paper but with cloths which are unique to their culture.

Well, Robin (my girl friend) and I decided that we should set up a shop selling Japanese gift wrappers - not paper products but cloths of different sizes and different designs to wrap different shapes of gifts... Indeed for the past few weeks I was struggling with the art. Learning to gift wrap in Japanese way is very difficult. Unlike paper wrappers which are commonly available and easily used, the cloth must be suitable for the right gift and the right colour to match. The cloth design itself is already an art ,what more the wrapping itself.

for the first gift, I decided to choose a small box(easy to wrap square
objects) the wrapping is straightforward just like the paper wrapper. The only difference is that you need to tie a nice ribbon-like pattern on the top of the box and that itself is really an artistic presentation.

for the second gift, I choose a round cylindrical type (much like the holder for painting) and you have to wrap it like candy with both ends nicely tied up and folded into a Christmas sweet-structure type of gift.

There are so many varieties of gifts and so many types of cloth to choose from. The folding of the ends into ribbons is another hard bit. Well, practice makes perfect, so I have been practising with table cloth, rags and other cloths so that I have enough practice later when I open my little shop for business.

While learning this art form, I encountered problems because I am by nature very impatient and want things to happen quickly and get on with the next task . However this skill learning has taught me many thigns.

Firstly it is about the heart in the wrapping. The Japanese do not do things hastily. They are thoughtful, mindful and careful. They select cloth carefully, place the cloth reverently on the table top which must be very clean and clear of other stuff, and then with sharp scissors and accessories before wrapping. Such deliberate attempt to wrap even the simplest and the cheapest of gifts make you realise that effort is more important than the gift itself. The art indeed is so zen- like, you feel peace and inner joy just to wrap one gift. The wrapping can take up to 30 minutes to perfect a wrapping.

Secondly the learning of this art actually trains one's patience. Selecting the cloth itself needs time and care and then the whole art of wrapping makes you really perspire. I had difficulty with this at first because it is so tedious and cumbersome. No cutting corners, no speedily wrapping up just because you are in a hurry. It is carefully planned out days before the gift is to be presented and thus the whole game of sorting, finding and wrapping so that the receiver is given the honour and the joy of receiving the gift from a friend's heart.

The last learning point of this wrapping is that it shows you a simple piece of cloth can become a part of a friendship to be revered and to be enjoyed . When the friend receives the gift, the inner joy and excitement will stay for a long time because of the way it is presented and the colour which is chosen to brighten someone's day.

So let us brighten someone's day today with a nice smile , which is the greatest simple gift of all. It costs nothing but it brings joy and sunshine to anyone who sees the smile. After this , go and learn this art of gift wrapping so that you can be different in your own country , unless you are Japanese yourself. Ah, even if you are a Japanese person, learn to master the more refined version of the art of cloth wrapping - the furoshiki-

Cheers and happy learning this new skill... I will share some more in my next blog.

Good day
SallyKlaus
The Self Improvement and NLP Blog