A Spark by Innocent Mwatsikesimbe from Questions Asked, chapter 16

Nobody applied for life. It arrived before there was anyone to do the asking, which makes it the purest kind of gift — and a gift that size tempts us to grip. Gripping looks like interrogation, demanding the mysteries solved before we’ll enjoy it; pondered too hard, it only baffles. Gripping also looks like busyness — days hardening into schedules, years into salaries — until the holding-on crowds out the living.

Letting go is the stranger, truer hold. A newborn arrives already obeying one command — live — and cares nothing for the mysteries; it keeps life perfectly by not clutching at it. “Life is the only thing we understand by not understanding.”

The balance isn’t resignation; it’s proportion. “If you wonder some, and ignore some, life is wholesome.” Wonder is welcome, just not as a grip. The best thing we were ever handed stays in the hand exactly as long as the hand stays open.