Hold out your hands

“Close your eyes and hold out your hands.”

It was the phrase of every birthday I experienced when I was young. I’d sometimes put my hands close together, and sometimes far apart (hoping for something big of course). As I got older and wanted to be goofy, I’d hold my hands out upside down.

The tradition continues in my family today. There’s nothing more adorable than hearing my two year old walk up to her daddy and say “kwoze you eyes and hode out you hands.”

But it doesn’t just happen at birthdays. Sometimes it’s when my older girls have been crafting all afternoon and have something to share. Sometimes they’ll come home from school with an exciting paper. Sometimes it’s when they’ve been playing outside…

My kids know I’m afraid of spiders. Not jump-up-on-a-chair-screaming afraid, but make-my-skin-crawl-and-look-around-for-the-nearest-shoe afraid. They’ve been known to play tricks on me with a pretend spider they got from a bug-themed party.

So depending on where they’ve been, sometimes I hold out my hands to them with one eye partly open, just in case.

Holding your hands out wide open can be scary.

It’s true in life too. We like to be in control. We want to see what’s coming, so we can brace ourselves or think of an escape route if we need to run quickly. We don’t always fully trust the giver.

What would it look like to walk through life with your hands confidently open? Acknowledging and trusting that at times you’ll receive hard things, but other times you’ll also receive good ones?

Because you can’t receive a good gift with your hands closed tight either.

31Days of Five Minute Free Writes is a participation in Write31Days, and takes place every October. See the rest of my craft-practicing posts linked up here.