Have you ever caught a glimpse of your hands while completing a task and thought about everything they have accomplished? Our hands are simple, yet, they have so much responsibility.

Our hands can create beauty, whether it is through music, photos, paintings, writings or the loving touches they can offer.

From when we were children, our loved ones’ hands held ours, guided us to walk and wiped our tears. As we got older, we grabbed new and exciting things, new experiences with our hands. We intertwined our hands with our loved ones’ hands, creating a physical bond that reflects our familial, platonic and romantic bonds.

They build relationships, not only through touch, but through punctuated movements during stories, and in some cases, our hands are the vehicles that propel words through the air when they are used in the various sign languages from around the world.

It is crazy to think that our hands, two very small parts of our bodies, can create and influence so much.

Unfortunately, our hands hold the same duality that every part of us holds: the potential to both heal and harm the potential to build and destroy.

Our hands have held the tools that created the most tragic, chaotic scenes. This is true when referring to the 2018 Orlando, Florida, shooting. This shooting resulted in 17 individuals losing their lives. The tragedy prompted various artists to gather and write a song relating to what our hands can do, painting the picture a little clearer. Some of the lyrics, from the song called “Hands”, are as follows:

“Cus they can hurt/ Or they can heal/ They can give back/ Or they can steal/ They can break the world/ Or they can change it too”

Our lives can be made a little better, a little happier and even more successful if we give notice to the actions of our hands. While our brains are responsible for the thought process, our hands are responsible for the actions.