What my leg taught me about hands

I recently had a leg injury which got me twenty four stitches and later, two secondary rounds of ten stitch each because of a problem with ‘skin approximation’. In other words, healing did not occur because the separated skin did not join the way it should have.

Our hands, with which we work, eat, slap, clap, write, type, masturbate, greet people, commit petty crimes and do lots more, must be relieved when they hold each other.

In Tao, hands are one of the couple of places from where practitioners get most energy. In many healing practices, hands are swayed and thoughts are directed to bring relief, while acupuncturists’ can trace the whole body on a hand.

Potent stuff, these hands are.

Instinctively or intentionally, so many lovers in their confused joy let their eyes play, and hands embrace. How delighting and humbling it is, when an infant hands over its hands to you. And as children, when we made promises, we held each other’s hands. Now, we high-five (hands again). Don't strangers hug hands, however brief, when they shake hands?
We graciously make them hug again when we bow for a namaste or a prayer.

Back to the leg:

All three times, I was without general anesthesia. The first time in the Casualty department, on a bed by the wall, a friend grasped my hand. The second time, in an operation theatre, I clasped a nurse's hand. The third time, again in an OT, with no one free around, I held my own hands.

And was glad I have two.

Then I thought, what if someone hurts their hands? How do they hold, and what?

Evolution, it struck me, designed hands with a lot of power and responsibility in their hands. And more than a handful of comfort, pleasure, joy and delight. (The handy hands got the English language to be generous too)

The spaces and folds, combined with the fragility and toughness, make for a sensuous setting cum stage for hands to be close, held tight, or light.

Before I end, a one minute experiment: Get your finger tips to meet each other one by one slowly.

Playing with any part of this magical toy is an experience. The magic begins right from the top. Next time you hold, behold.