Today's quotation:

Accept that all of us can be hurt, that all of us can— and surely will at times— fail.  Other vulnerabilities, like being embarrassed or risking love, can be terrifying, too.  I think we should follow a simple rule:  if we can take the worst, take the risk.

Joyce Brothers

Today's Meditation:

I will be hurt in life.  That's really all there is to it:  I will be hurt.  People will hurt me intentionally, unintentionally, unknowingly and knowingly.  How I react to the hurt, though, is the most important thing to me.  And how I react to the possibility of being hurt when I choose what I will do in life is just as important to me in the long and short runs.

I spent many years being unwilling to take risks with relationships.  My fear of rejection and fear of being humiliated kept me from asking girls out when I was young, and they kept me from asking women out when I was older.  While I certainly wouldn't want to change my current life, I do know that I spent many a miserable day because of my fear and the way that it controlled me; I have to wonder how much more I would have gotten out of life if I hadn't spent so much time feeling bad about myself and my world.  How much more beautiful would my world have been if I had been willing to take risks?  How much more would I have been able to give to others if I hadn't made myself so miserable?

If we know that our reactions to events determine our own feelings about them, we would know that we can take the worst.  The "worst" is rarely as bad as we imagine it to be--millions of people every day deal very well with loss and pain and frustration and seemingly hopeless situations.  If they can do it, so can we, no matter how "bad" things are.  And we all know that so-called "bad" things often turn out to be the best things for us.

For further thought:

I must tell you I take terrible risks.  Because my playing is very clear, when I make a mistake you hear it.  If you want me to play only the notes without any specific dynamics, I will never make one mistake.  Never be afraid to dare.

Vladimir Horowitz

more thoughts and ideas on risk

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