Open palms

 

The above picture keeps running in my head constantly as I go through my days. So I drew this. What does this mean? And why am I thinking about this so much?

There are usually only 2 scenarios in life - holding so tight that the fingers and palm start hurting, or just opening the palm, releasing whatever the fingers and palm were holding on to so tightly. Which one feels better? 

The answer is easy, but so difficult to straighten the fingers.

Though we know that an open palm sets us free, most of us hold a fist knowingly or unknowingly. The tighter we hold, the more difficult it gets to release. 

But just like everything else, there comes a tipping point, where it becomes impossible to hold on. The only option left will be to release. We hold on and on and on till it is no longer possible to hold. And in reality it is impossible to hold something as there are gaps between fingers in a fist and the thing we are trying to hold slips through the fingers anyway. 

When the palm is open, whatever needs to sit in our lives will sit and whatever needs to go will go. It is just like a butterfly, it comes closer to us and may even sit on the palm when we are not looking and very still. 

Of course one may argue that there is an in-between, but it never works because even the slightest bending of fingers (meaning slightest holding on) never lets us live in peace. So it is either a tight hold or an open palm 

And this release or an open palm or letting go happens in a unique way with each one. It can never be the same. It can also happen with various intensities. It may be very subtle or very obvious. In any case we will know that we have opened our palms and it feels good 

There is always a path leading us to let-go

I guess this is how it feels to open the palms😛

 

Mind

Lalbagh

Cafe Amudham

There is a story behind the above pictures. A friend of mine shared an incident from her life that had happened many years ago. It was about her father who fell from their house rooftop. His hand and back were badly hurt and the family called for an ambulance. In the meanwhile her father remained super calm, took a few moments for himself and told them he was fine. He did undergo treatment, doctors told him he had to live with a bad back, but in 15 days he was doing his daily chores and walking. This stayed on my mind ever since she told me. 

The next morning after my friend shared the incident, I woke up with a terrible headache followed by nausea. I had planned to meet a friend at 6.30 in the morning. When I woke up around 5 am, I was in pain. I popped a tablet. But it didn't help and I threw up. I popped another tablet to stop the nausea. My friend's story kept coming to my mind and I decided to step out. I left home a little later than planned. I did manage to do all the things I had planned that day. 

The reason I am writing about it is just to wonder about the power of our minds. An easy solution when I woke up would have been to cancel the plan to go out and sleep the whole day. But I knew I would feel low the whole day and I love the morning walks/meeting friends. So I didn't over think and told myself I would be fine and stepped out.

It is also a reminder to think positive thoughts. Imagine what the mind can do when we keep thinking negative thoughts or angry thoughts or sad thoughts or fearful thoughts. It can easily ensure what we think comes true. So better to talk to our mind the way we want our life to be. 

That's my food for thought for September!