Opening The Ragu

I push down.

I turn it to the right.

But still the lid won’t open.

So I try again. Push down.

Harder.

Scrunch up my face somehow thinking that the added effect will mysteriously help.

I turn the cap to the left and…

nothing.

The lid click click clicks and moves no where.

After a while I learned how to open the Ragu jar and the Tylenol bottle. But I’m, apparently, still stuck on the Listerine bottle as I found out tonight.

Child-proof locks. They kept me out for so long. But even while I was technically still a child I could undo a child-proofed cap. It took practice though. It took resolve as I listened to the click click click over and over again.

The child-proof caps haven’t been a problem for me for years. I just press down and turn. The cap comes right off.

But as I tried and tried again tonight to open the mouth wash bottle, I began to realize that there’s a lesson in all of this.

Children aren’t supposed to be able to open certain things. Seat belts are in cars for a reason. Electrical outlets are covered when there is a little one around. Child-proof locks on bottles and caps are there for a reason.

Protection.

They are meant to say Keep Out!

But as children we go meddling in with our little fingers twisting and turning until suddenly – the cap lifts off.

It’s facinating to us.

But it’s dangerous. Oh so dangerous.

We do this as adults, too. We meddle with our words and our mouths. We stick our heads into business that has nothing to do with us. We whine when we don’t have the answer when we want it, how we want it. We whine when we get the wrong answer. It all seems so little, so harmful, but it’s dangerous to not only us, but those around us.

Maybe we should just back away from the situation, from the child-proof lock, and let it be.

Maybe we aren’t old enough to understand the secret of how it all works and the key to pressing down and turning. We can read the directions, but we aren’t quite ready and equipped to do as the directions tell us.

Not yet, anyway.

We need a little more time.

A little more practice.

Do you find it hard to resist pushing and turning the lock that is meant for your protection? What do you need to just walk away from and let be until it’s time and you’re ready?

By: OneGirl, It Just Takes One

Photo source {added in at a later date}