Risk-Taking

To dare is to lose one’s footing momentarily. To not dare is to lose oneself.
--Soren Kierkegaard

Some mornings, when I wake up, it takes me a minute or two to enter the day; to choose to enter the day. My dreams are so exciting and baffling. I want to engage the players, characters, and situations some more. No such luck! My dog wants to go outside; my cats want to be fed…I throw back the covers as the intriguing dream recedes. Fades. Disappears. I turn my mind to the reality of another day, another gift from the Universe. One dream world diminishes as another takes shape: 

Today!

What dreams, I wonder are still mine as I begin my octogenarian years?  What dreams are yours??

A.   Lucid Dreams
B.   Daydreams
C.   Bigger and Better Dreams
D.   Postponed Dreams
E.    Nightmares
F.    All of the Above

Do our dreams depend on where we focus our attention?

Here’s the thing: Yogi Berra was right: “It ain’t over ‘til it’s over.”

The entire future is still available.

So, what if some mornings my leg cramps for a minute! So, what if the face I face in the bathroom mirror looks momentarily unfamiliar? So what!

I splash water on that face and tell her to smile from her heart. I find some shoes. I feed the insistent cats and my patient dog…

I go outside. There it is: the air, the ground, the sky. My chickens. And the birds!

Stretch. Bend. Move. Breathe. Walk. Skip. Sing. Hum. Look. Listen…and say aloud, “I Love My Life!”
Go ahead. Risk it! Risk being optimistic, determined, grateful…

What do you want; what do you need? Where does your dream live?
Keep speaking your dream out loud. Keep thinking about it, considering it, praying for it, wanting it, going for it, trying it, starting it, finishing it, doing it…

That’s the spirit!

May we give ourselves permission to ask for what we truly want at 100 %.
​
…The trip – The book – The poem – The project – The phone call…

Are you waiting for APPROVAL?  From whom? For what?
 
Are you weighing risks?  What if you do “it”? What if you don’t?  Suppose you had done it?
 
What would you risk doing now that you would not have risked when you were younger?
What would you NOT risk now that you did or would have risked in the past?
 
What are the basic risks of “Showing Up”?
 
In Baghdad, I weighed the risk of (possibly/probably) getting quite sick against the risk of insulting the generous, internally displaced Iraqi woman who graciously offered me a glass of Tang-like beverage as I stood in the bombed-out, makeshift living quarters that she shared with her large and struggling family.
 
Some say I shouldn’t have risked it!
Some say, “Of course, you drank the Tang!”
How do you deal with (so-called) RISKS?
​
Here is a magical poem that inspires me. Maybe it will inspire you: