Hold out your hand in front of you, with your palm facing the ceiling.

(Yes, please, play along.)

Place into the center of your palm, an object that would rest there comfortably, and provide little strain.

(Examples of such items may include a coin, pebble, paperclip, bottle cap, key, playing card, letter, small roll of tape, pencil, eraser, button, thimble, key, marble, stick of gum, a tiny ball, piece of cereal, ring, pendant, cuff link, die, piece of candy, tea bag, k-cup, plastic army man, puzzle piece, daffodil, green bean, or even a baked bean.  Poor examples of things to place in your hand include a broom, computer, ladder, pineapple, pitcher of water, dog, cat, ferret, chinchilla, pipewrench, brick, laddle, shoe, board game, french horn, coffee pot, belt, watermelon, cooked noodles, chainsaw, plunger, pumpkin, iron, shovel, backpack, or a cantaloupe.)

Now that you’ve selected an appropriate item, and placed it in your palm, don’t move.

(I trust that the aforementioned lists were adequate assistive examples to aid in your selection process)

Your hand remains open, and your selected object rests comfortably in your hand.  You feel no strain on your wrist, fingers, or palm.  The object provides delicate, slightly enjoyable pressure where it touches your palm.  You look at your hand, and observe an open, accepting, extended, extremity, with a foreign object perched delicately at its center, and you smile.

(Nothing satirical to add here)

In time, you sense that this lackadaisical appreciation of  foreign influence may be better experienced, more deeply.  So, you bring your fingers in, press your fingertips against your palm, and squeeze the object tightly.  You turn your wrist around, with your palm facing the ground, seeing the intensity of your grip, as you note the flexing of the muscles in your forearm.

(Interestingly enough, as the grip tightens, the increasing pain upon the knuckles, and the wrist, of the applying hand of the crushing squeeze, continues)

Regardless of how hard you bear down upon the chosen object, you don’t feel it any more intensely, than when it rested, open-handed, in your palm.  If your chosen object had ridges, or spikes, they would have damaged, or pierced the flesh of your palm.  You can clench the object, till blood drips from your hand, but, ultimately, it’s your tensed grip, that will fail.  Your palm, your fingers, and your sinews will succumb to the intense, clenched, pressure; they will eventually falter, and ultimately, release.

(You will feel so, incredibly, relieved, when you spread your fingers wide.)

(You’ll feel such less pressure, when you turn your hand over.)

(You may even relax, when your grip, finally, subsides.)

Do not grip things with such fierce intensity.  Engage them with your hand extended, and open.

Humbly yours,

J