Do you ever feel that you have understood some things better before they were explained? Learning how my hands functioned & looked in x-rays distanced me from the mysteries of touch. 

   Fine photographs can help restore our sense of the spiritual magic in our hands. Hands, like eyes, can heal.

   Here are four images. They have back stories. The rest of what these images awaken in you is up to your open heart.

   The first image (above) was taken by a CBS news photographer. One hand reaches out to many & vice versa. The hand reaching out is Hillary Clinton's. Why does she reach our? Why do they want to touch her hand?

This second picture was made by an anonymous military photographer in a battlefield hospital. These hands reach out to help one tiny person. If you click on the image you can see what the baby's hands are doing. 

   This picture shows my left hand photographed using my right. It rests amid pages of Radical Loving Care. Were I blind & this book in Braille I might be reading with my fingers. In either case this hand reaches for words. 

This last picture was also taken by an unnamed military photographer as part of a Defense Department competition. To me it is the "best" because any further words might steal from your personal understanding. 

   In important ways, each of these hands are yours. Thank you for the healing your hands offer each day.

-Erie Chapman