Risk

RISK
Author unknown

To laugh is to risk appearing the fool.
To weep is to risk appearing sentimental.
To reach out to others is to risk involvement.
To expose 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 is to risk despair.
To try is to risk failure.

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

The person who risks nothing,
does nothing, has nothing, and is nothing.

They may avoid suffering and sorrow,
but they cannot learn, feel, change, grow, love, live.

Chained by their attitudes, they are a slave,
they forfeited their freedom.

Only the person who risks can be free

Why TAW?

What brings me to back to The Artist's Way?

I haven't been writing lately. I haven't been drawing. I haven't been taking care of myself. Over the years I've come to realize that when I am not doing these things, my life falls out of balance. I go into a downward spiral of low self-esteem and unhealthy choices in my life. I struggle to find the silver lining. I look at what others have and what I do not. I lose the clarity to make decisions.

I've come to the place on the yellow brick road where I don't know know whether to take east or west so I sit, suspended in my own darkness.

I need to write yet I lack confidence that my voice and what I have to say it “worthy” I’m so afraid of showing true emotion and being truth of who *I* am, that I’ve long hidden that self.

It’s time to open my wide electric-blue peacock feathers and emerge from the cocoon I’ve remained hidden in all these years. It is from within the darkness of the confines that I've been watching the world go by.

I censor what comes out in my thoughts. Fear of not wanting to hurt somebody. Fear of being judged by my thoughts. I write easier when I am writing to "someone" which is why an anonymous blog seemed like a way to be able to gain some confidence in being truthful and free with my words.

I have a lot to learn. I have a lot to say

Who Am I?

You are Everywhere
The Giver of Everything
You are the Mystery
You are the Power of All
You are Without Desire
Free from worry of mind
Withing beginning, without end
You are the Light of Beauty
You are Beloved of All
You are Present Everywhere
You are the Unseen
You are the Knower of all
You are unseen.

- Sat Kartar (musician)

The Life of the Imagination

1. If the best of all possible worlds were reality, I would wake up with oodles of energy to start my day.

2. If the best of all possible worlds were reality, I'd share Sunday mornings with a loved one.

3. If the best of all possible worlds were reality, I'd be a productive artist, submitting pieces to galleries.

4. If the best of all possible worlds were reality, I would take an evening dip in the pristine swimming pool in my back yard.

5. If the best of all possible worlds were reality, I'd have written my memoir.

6. If the best of all possible worlds were reality, I could buy clothes at any clothes store without having to go in search of the plus-sized section in the very back of the store.

7. If the best of all possible worlds were reality, I would be using the gift of Reiki to heal and improve the general well-being of others.

8. If the best of all possible worlds were reality, I could travel the world.

9. If the best of all possible worlds were reality, I'd have regular massages and pedicures.

10. If the best of all possible worlds were reality, I would be enlightened.

25 Symbols of Success and Sophistication.

1. Wholefoods Groceries
2. Athletic, Toned Bodies
3. Journals that are Full
4. Swimming Pools.
5. Pedicured Feet
6. Good Credit Ratings
7. Matching Lingerie
8. Green Tea
9. Morning Pages.
10. Neatness
11. Organization
12. Fresh Flowers
13. Babies
14. Beautiful Hand Writing
15. Sat Kartar
16. Happy, Healthy plants
17. Good Literature
18. Fruit Smoothies
19. Olympians
20. Small, economical cars
21. Lack of any fear
22. Tasteful Tattoos
23. Green
24. Natalie Goldberg
25. Completion of Projects