Contentment and nunchi

Hi there! Our sgraffito powder drawing challenge has, to use a much overused term favored by politicos, "turned the corner". Assignments through yesterday had us drawing our interpretations of abstract nouns. The first picture I have for you today is the last one in that series: contentment. I had to let this one rattle around in my brain for a couple of day, considering and discarding my way through a variety of ideas. The one I was unable to toss aside was this -- contentment represented as light, gentle waves of, well, contentment ;o)  Not very profound, I know, but here it is:

Contentment:

As I mentioned above, our assignment for today (and apparently those for days to come) is different. (as in head scratchingly, perplexingly abstract-er) The word for today was "nunchi":

Nunchi

Noun.  (Korean)

The subtle, often unnoticed art of listening and gauging another's mood.

Say what? Yes, this is a Korean word, and a rather complex idea. How the heck does one draw nunchi?  

I tossed this around for a couple of hours, but I kept coming back to the same thoughts on this term: this is something that occurs frequently in abusive relationships. In order to survive abuse, a victim learns to quietly, surreptitiously, gauge her/his abuser's mood. So, this one is somewhat dark for me, although I do recognize that this could also be used to describe "active listening" activities. 

So, if you want quiet, gentility -- send your eyes back up to the picture of contentment. 

Nunchi: