We're too quick to fight. We get defensive too easily when critiqued. Combat seems to be the first option, the default setting on our angrily programmed brains. We want to defend our territory, our opinion, or our reputation from anyone who disagrees, sees differently, or has another idea. It must be exhausting for us to be so mean, to live in a world with a mindset that trusts last, is always skeptical, and rarely gives others the benefit of the doubt. Imagine how much easier life could be if we were able to walk around or run unencumbered by all those chips on our shoulders and monkeys on our backs.
And it's so easy to let go of these things. Our anger can be dropped like a careless dime that slips out of our fingers while we're digging for our subway ticket, landing on the pavement with a dulled clink and then bouncing and rolling towards the grate to be washed away with the day. Let go of your burdens, your anger, your stereotypes, your biases, and your pain. Release them from your clenched fist and greet the world with a vulnerable, empty open hand.
You can hold more in an open hand than in a clenched fist. Try it. Hold golf balls or pens or eggs or dollars. When you freely share - both your joy and your pain - you'll see that everything is more easily carried when others help. But no one can pry your troubles and your elation out of that straining closed fist of yours.
Open up. Take in more. Let us help. Share with us.
No one holds fists. They hold hands.