Everybody says write about what you know, well in all fairness, I don't know a lot, at least not a lot about things that are worth writing about so I have decided to write about life in general. I have been thinking a lot about life and all the jazz that goes with it. You only get one life, you only get one chance and people always tell you to be careful, make the right decisions so you don't mess up your life or the lives of others, don't do anything drastic and never take risks. But if we only have one life, why would we be careful about everything? Its not like we get another crack at it. We can't just flip the hourglass over and give it another try. This is it. This one life is all we get why not make the most of it?
Basically what I am talking about is risk. Taking risks is what life is all about. If you think about it, every day is a risk, every decision we make is a risk, we cannot know what is to come out of making those decisions so why bother worrying about it? If your heart is telling you that it is okay to make a certain decision then make it, that is the only thing that you should worry about. You cannot control what consequences will follow, you cannot control who it offends or upsets, who it hurts or who it makes happy so don't think about it to much if it feels right, do it.
This theory can work with pretty much everything. For example, love. Such a big scary thing to so many people, but why? It is probably the most natural thing in this world. When we allow ourselves to love someone, take that risk and open our hearts we risk the chance of that person not loving us in return, we risk the chance of failure, the chance of heartache and pain, the chance of exposing our inner selves to another person, but what about all the magic that love brings? You know, the mushy wonderful gooeyness of it all. The butterflies, the goose bumps, the secret smiles. The immense joy of just love in general is probably the best, most irrational, yet completely amazing thing a person can experience and if we don't take the risk to allow it into our lives, we will never know it.
Another example is reaching out to help someone. There are people all over the world that need help and there are those individuals that are willing to reach out and do just that even though reaching out means risking involvement. If you go to another country to help families in need, you put yourself in a venerable place, letting those people into your hearts, allowing yourself to feel sorrow or maybe even anger. But without the risk you took in the first place you would never experience the pleasure, the good feeling you get knowing you helped another person, that you could very well have changed the course of life for a certain individual or group of individuals. Without risk we cannot know joy.
Risk can be taken into account for other simpler things too, like a decision at work, or even every day decisions like which road to drive down or whether or not to take that vacation you are dying to take. Risk is part of our everyday lives, we need to takes risks, we need to allow our natural instincts to take over from time to time or else what is the point to life?
Living in general is a risk if you think about it, to live is to risk dying, but aren't you glad that you are alive? Risks must be taken because the worst thing in life is to do nothing. Sure we may avoid suffering and heartache, we might avoid causing pain to another but without risk we will never learn ,feel, change, grow, love, or live. So take a risk, speak your mind at a business meeting, take that well deserved vacation, reach out to the world without worrying about the consequences, open your heart to another without thinking about the pain it may cause, live your life with a sense of abandon, make it worth this everyday battle we call living.
