Running the race

Idea to practice: taking risks

Ahh, there is nothing like jumping right into something that you KNOW will make you stretch, challenge your limits and make you bust out laughing, right out loud.

So when my old kayaking and hiking friend suggested that we do a part of the Birkebeiner (the Boston Marathon of cross-country ski races), I said yes.

Yes. I said it. I already committed. And now that I have sent this posting out into cyberspace, I am really committed.

I have learned time and again that challenging myself always reveals newer and higher views of how I understand God, myself and the world. We are part of "Love's divine adventure to be All-in-all."

This piece, written in 1974 by Alex Noble and published in The Christian Science Monitor, has been an inspirational mainstay - I pull it out whenever I am ready to embark on something new and unknown. Enjoy!

Stepping forward

I find that risk toward expansive and creditable goals is essential. While risk is easy to talk about, it is not so easy to practice. When I take a risk, extending myself in a new direction, it is like stepping out onto a frozen lake. The surface looks inviting, open and secure. But there is always the possibility that the ice will crack - the possibility of failure, of making a fool of myself. Whenever I take a risk - toward developing a new skill, toward a new and challenging friendship - I almost always have deep misgivings as to the wisdom of my course. True to each step of the new experience as it opens up before me, I move forward, sustained only by an inner sense of assurance and necessity, even though the surrounding landscape may appear uncertain and even dangerous.

In any risk situation, I try to maintain a willingness to let go of things that are not working out in a natural and spontaneous way. There must be freedom, flow and growth. But a new talent or skill, a new friend, a fresh perspective on my life - these are well worth the soul-searching that risk usually provokes.

Jean Cocteau has said, "An artist should find out what he does best, and then do something else." What is there to gain if I stay safe and warm within the confines of a comfortable, established order? On the other hand, what can I possibly lose by confronting the new, the unknown, where amazing, invigorating, horizon-opening things can, and do, happen? In taking risks, I often ask myself this question: "Is anything done from an impulse of my truest self a mistake, regardless of what might happen?"

What things are opening new horizons for you today?



Would you like to share your thoughts on this or to explore this idea further? Please feel free to be in contact with me, add your own comments below, email this article to a friend, or add to the healing finds and sites on the web to the right. Thanks!