The change of the calendar from one year to the next tends to bring about reflection for most people, even if it's just for a passing moment. We tend to look back at where we were a year ago and think about how things have changed. For the average person, there's been quite a bit of difference. There were likely changes in relationships, understandings, thought patterns, and things like that. Some years can bring a change of geographical location or even internal location, a change in status, be that marital, academic, social, career-related, etc. Whatever the last 12 months brought, it has likely altered some things in you and in your life.
One of the things that I've realized as the years tick by is that when these periods of reflection come, I tend to find myself amazed and sometimes surprised. Things that seem sure in one moment can be completely altered the next. The person you think you'll be with forever is no longer in your life. The job you expected to have for years to come ends for one reason or another. You're healthy one day, then the next, you're staring at the ceiling of a hospital room. With so much change, flux, and uncertainty, why would anyone invest heavily in anything? Why not just live moment to moment for the greatest possible pleasure and personal benefit? If nothing is guaranteed, why even try? I've been told since I was a child that tomorrow isn't promised, so why plan and prepare for tomorrow if it may not come or be as you want it to be?
Because life is a gamble. It's like investing - the more you put in, the more you have the potential to get back as a return. Does it always work out to give you a positive? Not necessarily in a given situation, but that doesn't mean that your investment in one place won't grant you a beautiful return in another. For instance, you might be an art lover, so you work hard at your job, scraping and saving until you can finally get that piece of art that you've had your eye on. Your investment in one place (work) granted the return that you wanted (the masterpiece). This might be a bit harder to see in relationships, especially when they end. But I believe that our investment in any given relationship can bring positive returns in that relationship and in future relationships as well, because they bring about the return of self-awareness, relational understanding, and so much more.
Can every risk be carefully calculated and accurately assessed? No, because other people are involved, and they aren't variables that you can control no matter how hard you try. But that too is part of the gamble - the decision to interact on any real level with other people. So everything we do is a gamble... We have to make the decision to do what is necessary even if it's difficult or doesn't seem safe or smart. I was having a conversation today, and it was a question of whether or not to trust. The person I was talking to said that she had been hurt before and lied to before, and because of that, she was choosing to assume that it was happening again. As the conversation wore on, even though the evidence didn't point to lies, she was still unwilling to really accept it since she'd already made up her mind. She wasn't willing to gamble....
I'm not saying that it's necessary to take every gamble, because that's not a good idea at all. But it is necessary to gamble at times. This means investing in things that aren't 100% certain. Even if they end in ways that you don't desire or anticipate, it doesn't mean that it wasn't worth the investment. And I encourage you to take a gamble. Do something that you're unsure of but that you've wanted to do. Even if a year from now it looks different or things have gone in a different direction, the strength it took to gamble won't be lost.
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