I was sent this yesterday by a friend. It caused much deep thought and a fair amount of drinking last night.
Risk:
To laugh is to risk appearing the fool.
To weep is to risk appearing sentimental.
To reach out for another is to risk involvement.
To expose feelings is to risk exposing your true self.
To place your ideas your dreams before a crowd is to risk their loss.
To love is to risk not being loved in return.
To live is to risk dying.
To hope is to risk despair.
To try is to risk failure.
But risks must be taken, because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing.
The person who risks nothing does nothing, has nothing and is nothing.
They may avoid suffering and sorrow, but they cannot learn, feel, change, grow, love, live.
Chained by their attitudes, they are a slave, they have forfeited their freedom.
Only a person who risks is free.
For too long now, I have avoided risk of all kinds. If something had the potential, however obscure, to hurt me in some way, I simply refused it. I was tired of losing, getting hurt. What happens, though, when you come across something that makes you question that decision? It isn't easy to step out of your box and to take the chance that you could be utterly crushed. Or, even WORSE, the chance that your children could suffer because you took the chance. I just can't stand the fact that their little hearts could be broken or even bruised. For those of you that are my family .. as in literally related to me .. you know what I'm talking about. Thank you for putting up with my neurotic self and encouraging me. I KNOW I am not the easiest person to understand or get along with .. lol.
I don't want to be hurt. Don't want to be the fool. Wish me luck .. and be close by if the world collapses around me.
