Do you wear gloves every time you want to touch something? Probably not, yet figuratively we often do. We avoid direct touch by emotionally dressing and primping, adding clothes, putting on gloves if you will. It’s as if we cover up who we really are.
When we knowingly or unknowingly add layers of clothes, we add layers that keep us from really feeling or experiencing the world around us. It may start with a thin layer of protection, but quickly becomes many layers that begin a state of loneliness reducing our joy.
Equate this to putting on a pair of gloves every time we touch something, then forgetting we have our gloves on, and then complaining because nothing feels real.
It’s been said that we are all bald beneath our hair, yet we spend so much time emotionally covering and dressing up. We all want to be loved, and behind all insecurity and anger is a wound waiting to be healed. Too many layers impede that healing.
The same applies to our senses as well. Perhaps our challenge each day is not so much to get dressed up to face the world, but rather to unglove ourselves so we can feel that handshake, the cold doorknob, the wetness of the rain, the unique and unrepeatable goodbye kiss from another human being, the taste of every morsel of food, and so on.
Behind sadness is the scar of fear and scarcity. I challenge you to look for people, things, and experiences to find, explore, feel without layers, and appreciate – to discover and feel the joy in the ordinary all around you. It can begin with each breath and undress yourself of your mood, beliefs, and history. Feel your skin beneath your clothes, and your insides beneath your skin. Take a break and enjoy this time. Life may become so much more delicious for you!
