Risk

NASA-Hubble _ Image of Star V838 Monocerotis

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 your 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 it to risk despair.

To try it to risk failure.

But risks must be taken because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing.

The person who risks nothing ... has nothing ... is nothing.

You may avoid suffering and sorrow,

but you simply cannot learn, feel, change, grow, love ... live.

Chained by your certitudes, you are a slave; you have forfeited freedom.

Only a person who risks is free.

~Ralph Waldo Emerson