I Had My Palms Read Once and Sometimes Wish That I Hadn’t

You can’t un-hear some things.

Four years ago, in a small Guatemalan cafe, I had my palms read.

Now, before you go thinking it was from a Guatemalan witch doctor or something like that, it wasn’t. It was from a friend that we had made while living in Flores, a small city in the north of Guatemala near the famous Mayan ruins of Tikal. He is actually Austrian but had been living there for a while. He was also still in the process of learning how to read palms, so he had to look up different meanings a few times throughout the session.

I have always been curious about people who can read the future, do numerology, and all those things akin to reading palms. I always felt that they had some sort of special powers, and part of me wished that I did too.

But I was surprised when I did this and saw him researching the different lines and what they meant. This showed me that he was only learning a skill and that others could do it also.

I also realized that he didn’t seem to have any special skill to do with telling people's fortunes.

As he went through the different lines, he came to my lifeline. For those that don’t know, the lifeline runs from above the thumb down the center of the palm and can also reach the wrist.

He looked at mine and said that it was strong and that it was away from my thumb, which indicates a healthy life. But then he went on to say that it was broken and that I might have an accident or illness later in my life.

“It doesn’t look like it will be soon,” he said, “maybe in your early fifties. So be careful and take care of yourself.” I was 41 at the time.

I’ll admit, I didn’t hear much of what he had to say after that.

What could this mean? What type of accident? What type of illness?

I already do take good care of myself.

At the end of the session, he told me that everything looked really good, but that I should watch my lifeline. He then added, “You know that you can heal it?”

I was in a bit of a trance. “Oh, okay, thanks,” I said, wanting to add ‘I guess’ at the end. I didn't feel good about anything, and I will admit that somedays I still don’t.

Heal it? I was left with the advice that I can heal it.

What the hell am I supposed to heal?

And how do I know what is broken?

I left the session feeling like I had more questions than answers and went back into the other section of the coffee shop to visit with our other friends. One of them asked me how it went.

“Oh pretty good, but I have a broken lifeline,” I told him.

“Oh, well you can heal it, you know?”

“Yeah, that’s what he said,” I told him.

So now, here I am four years later, and I still look at my lifeline to see if it has ‘healed.’ You know, I wish I would have taken a picture of it then because I have no idea if it looks like it is healing or not. But I do check often and wonder what it all means.

I also wonder if I will become some kind of paranoid freak when I reach 50, which is only 5 years away. I mean, if I am concerned about it now, how will I feel as we inch closer to the doomed prediction.

As I type this, I laugh. This certainly is not the self-assured girl that I once was writing this piece. She would have balked at all of this and felt that the palm reader was a quack. But she has also realized that nothing in life is straightforward, and maybe, just maybe, all of this does mean something.

While I would love to disregard the whole thing, I do still have a nagging voice in the back of my mind that does wonder if there is something to all of it.

In writing this article, and going online to do a little research to find the photo above demonstrating the lifeline, I have learned a few more things. Here is a quote from the article:

A long and clear life line with a big arc predicts fullness of vitality, enthusiasm, good health, and high resistance to illness.

#1. My lifeline is long and reaches almost down to my wrist. The article says that this doesn’t necessarily mean I will live a long life, but it is a good thing and means that I will live a healthy life. (Lifelines don’t predict longevity.)

#2. The break is very small and usually means that the illness or accident will be short-lived. It doesn’t mean that I will die from it, as I had wondered before.

#3. The lifeline is broken into three parts and the latter part of our lives is near the wrist section. From what I can see, the break is in the latter part which is considered old age, not in my 50s.

#4. Most importantly, I learned that the upward forks at the top of my lifeline exhibit diligence, optimism, and a thirst for knowledge, plus further branches symbolize ambition.

Do I wish that I never had my palms read?

Well, there is certainly a part of me that wishes that I had never heard the things that he told me about my lifeline. Then I could live in bliss and harmony and never worry about a thing. But there is another side of me that is happy to be reminded that I should take care of myself.

Chris and I really do make sure that we stay as healthy as we can while we travel. We eat good foods that are high in certain vitamins and drink hibiscus tea almost daily to boost our vitamin C. When Covid hit we went above and beyond to stay as healthy as possible and took vitamins daily to make sure our immune systems were strong. We walk as much as we can, making sure to get some exercise, plus, we stretch and do yoga when the opportunity is right. We also don’t drink much alcohol these days, it just isn’t a priority like it was back in Canada.

So, at the end of the day, I will say this.

No, I don’t like checking my lifeline and wondering if maybe, just maybe there is something to all of this. And I don’t like catching myself wasting time trying to figure out if it is ‘healing’ or not.

But I do like being told to take care of myself. It’s hard to say if I would have taken that so seriously, had I not had my palms read. Maybe it has been a subconscious probing, pushing me along, telling me to make healthy choices for my body.

WHO KNOWS!

I’m not a fortune teller, and I can’t predict the future. The best I can do now is to take care of myself, and know that I am doing my best.

The future will figure itself out, based on what I am doing today.

So maybe, just maybe, I am happy to have had my palms read. As annoying as it seems at times, maybe there were also hidden messages that might have needed to get through.

Thanks for reading my silly story. Before getting your palms read, your cards read, or your future told, I hope this gives you pause to think about if you are ready to hear what it is that needs to be said.

One thing is for sure, you can never un-hear it.

xo Jill

When Fear Is Crippling

Weekend Writing Prompt Response: Prompt 5: “Fear”

medium.com

Hi there, we are 2 Canadians, Jill and Chris from Artistic Voyages. We have been nomadic since 2017 living in numerous different countries, and experiencing the life and diversity of our planet on the ground and firsthand. We paint FREE murals in exchange for accommodation. Check us out on Ko-fi!

Subscribe to Medium through my referral link to get full access to my writing plus thousands of others! Plus sign up here to get my articles by email!

Join our adventure by hitting the links below!