What if – Hands

This the start of a new What if series.

What if you woke up in the morning and you could just tell things were different. It was something but you weren’t sure exactly what. You pull back the covers to get out of bed and you still can’t tell what the difference is exactly but there is a pain in your hand. It wasn’t there the night before you went to bed.

Did something happen in the night? Did you get in bed tipsy from too much celebrating? Let’s say it was a “school” night and you were good the night before. You even have water by your bed and take sips upon waking. Then it becomes clear that even holding the water is not the same. Your hands feel strange. They hurt. It’s an ache at first. And then there is a pulse. And ache that throbs begins.

For what seems like days, you struggle to do the most mundane things like setting the dead bolt on the door that sticks in the heat. You have to lift the hinge with the door knob to get it to connect correctly. The think is that you can’t do that with these hands of yours. It’s almost like you either had surgery or something. They just ache. They even feel like they are bandaged up. Suddenly there is this realization that not only are you struggling, but you are actually hurting another person next to you in all of these regular things you are doing?

(How can that be?) [Stay with me in suspension of belief.] There is this energy that you can detect that is someone else. It may even seem like you have his hands and he has yours and yet for each of these basic things that you do, you both are sharing the pain. You have no choice but to live, which now means that you are hurting this other person.

It turns out that you have to leave the house and go to the store. Your cat does not have food. The last can has been eaten in the morning. So you find yourself gripping a steering wheel with the realization that this hurts the other person. How can any of this be? Part of your thoughts are horror and marvel at how you could possibly connect with another person in this way and yet here you are hurting them. 

So was it surgery? Or some other hand ailment? With each normal movement, you can’t decide turning the steering wheel and part of you wishes that you could just ask the person what is going on. The thing is that you can’t. Sure you can ask, but there is no answer.

Based on how the pain feels, you decide on it being 3rd degree burns. When you get home, you pop 4 Advil hoping that it helps. In the bathroom light you inspect your hands. Are there any marks? Is the skin more red than usual? No and no.

By the 6th day, the pain is gone. You are sitting at the music keyboards at your daily practice that you can now do. You are able to work on a new song’s composition. Your fingers all work, all ten. And this wave of gratefulness fills you to your very core. And you just hope that this other person has the use of all ten of theirs, just as you have.

Gratitude.

What if we could help others like that? 

What if we could offer encouragement in the most silent of manners and help bare the burden of an injury? 

What if we could? 

Here’s to hoping that the Hands person is healing well!

Namaste.