What’s in Your Hand?

“You cannot shake hands with a clenched fist.” (Golda Meir)

I love this quote from Ms. Meir because you can read it in two distinct ways–and how you read it tells you a lot about your present mindset:

1. You can be the one offering an open hand
2. You can be the one with a closed fist

So, how did you take it? Did you imagine yourself as the reasonable one, willing to offer an open hand to a hardened opponent? After all, you’re the one in the right, right? So it’s an incredibly gracious effort on your part to extend an offer of peace to your tight-fisted, disagreeable, closed-minded partner in conflict? Are you waiting on someone else to change?

Or, when you first read it, did you take Ms. Meir’s quote the other way? Did you see yourself as the one with the closed fist? Are you the one whose anger, whose hurt, whose sense of self-righteous indignation has tempted you to punch, or perhaps just stew in your steam? Are you the one who needs to change?

Here’s another question: who did you think about as your opponent in this scenario? Your spouse? Child? Colleague? Boss? Parent? Sibling? Political foe? Religious adversary?

Peace begins with a pause,

Hal