Friday's Personal Journal: Risk

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.

You may avoid suffering and sorrow if you don't risk, but you simply cannot learn, feel, change, grow, love, live. The greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing. The person who risks nothing, does nothing and has nothing. Only a person who risks is free.

(Author Unknown)

I happened upon this and thought it was quite poignant.  I have to say that in my life I have taken many risks.  Adrenaline, business, relationships....every life choice made has some consequence to it.  Some have turned out good and many have not.  I often wonder now if taking a risk and moving to Hawaii was worth it.  Would I still be married if we lived on the Mainland?  I have had many people suggest that it was all a huge mistake.  I don't know the answer to that.  It was definitely a risk.

Fortunately and unfortunately, none of us has the ability to see the future.  If we did and saw all of our "failures", chances are that we would never take a risk.  Nor would we ever know the satisfaction of succeeding.  Sounds like a wasted life to me. 

 I'm not talking about gambling or something like a really stupid Russian roulette game.  There is always a need for common sense.  I'm talking about seeing something you really want to do, be, go and doing it.  Good or bad, the consequences will fall and the one wild card is that you can never predict the behavior of another human being.  And that may be where the biggest risks are.  I'd trust the bungee cord at this point more than I trust people.  Hopefully that will change.

I guess the good thing is that we can learn from the failures we have and that future risks can become more educated and enlightened.  Hopefully not make the same mistake twice.  So have I been stupid or not?  I don't know the answer to that either.  I'm certainly no expert on the future. What I do know is that like everything, my move to Hawaii is a mixed bag.  Only time will tell if the rewards were worth the risk.  And as always, it's on to the next risk....either that, or get to the other side with a proverbial "buried talent".  I'd like to at least be able to say I always tried my best.