A Risk Worth Taking

Someone once said, ~To love is to risk not being loved in return. To hope is to risk pain. To try is to risk failure, but risk must be taken because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing.~ Without a doubt, one of the scariest aspects of love or true love for that matter is taking a risk with your own heart. For there are absolutely no guarantees that the risks one takes in the pursuit of true happiness are truly successful because of how much of an unknown it is. Pain, humiliation, disappointment, doubt, frustration, etc. are associated with something so scary and yet a person is willing to face it head on knowing full well there is the possibility of rejection, which is an experience that quite a number of people personally know all too well.

As said before, part of what makes love so scary is to risk hitting the painful and oftentimes embarrassing wall of rejection. It's certainly a tough situation indeed to be rejected by a guy/girl you're interested in, but to be rejected by a significant other is both tough to deal with and utterly shocking as well. It's a sad state of affairs when you completely open yourself up in an emotional, mental, and spiritual way to someone who you thought loved you with all of his/her heart only to have them be rejected. I think it would be safe to say a part of you dies inside and whether or not you see it coming you, in a sense, feel robbed because he/she for in all intents and purposes reached within your heart taking what belongs to you...joy and excitement.

If you think about it, when it comes to matters of the heart there is always risk involved when you put your feelings out there, especially if you're falling for someone you know or are friends with. You see, it can most definitely be a struggle in itself to share your feelings with a certain guy/girl you're potentially interested in knowing there is that innate fear of knowing he/she may not have the same feelings for you to the point where there is a risk in hurting a well established friendship. For some people they took the risk only to have an awkward friendship while others didn't take the risk at all inevitably hiding their feelings to where they live a tortuous existence within their heart. Yet, for most people they ignored the risk putting all fear aside as they now live a life filled with love and contentment.

Let me ask you this question, how many of you risked doing/saying what was in your heart and when you were able to look back on it you didn't have any regrets whatsoever? Thinking about it, every person runs the risk of having the proverbial monkey of regret on our back, whereby putting us in the unfortunate position nobody ever wants to be in. What might that position be you ask? The position of always asking the ever nagging what if or what could have happened if we had the courage to talk to him/her when given the chance but didn't because you felt he/she was either out of your league, wouldn't even give you the time of day, or whatever the case may be. Let me tell you something, life is too short to wonder so risk trying and regret nothing.

Mary Manin Morrisey said, ~We take a risk when we open our heart because the truth is, if we open our heart, we will get hurt. You can't open your heart and not have some hurt because you're in a human experience. Even if it’s the love of your life and you have many wonderful, deepening, growing, powerful years together, it's a human experience and that person will pass over, Love takes courage. Be courageous.~ In retrospect, every person has the courage to take the risk with their heart and if you say it's not there you're lying to yourself because its in there somewhere you just have to find it. In the end, love is a risk as the fear and pain from being hurt so many times over or facing constant rejection in the past will be worthwhile as you will finally meet someone who will be a risk worth taking.