My Grandma Girlie gave me a poem she found when I was in my teens. I read it over and over and over through the years. It popped into my head again as I was planning my new project See Taste, and needed some reassuring. I realized that it has become a part of me, it has lead me and formed me into who I am. Here it is:

To Dare

To laugh is to risk appearing a fool.
To weep is to risk appearing sentimental.
To reach for another is to risk involvement.
To expose 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 believe is to risk failure.
But risks must be taken because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing.
The people who risk nothing,
do nothing, have nothing, are nothing.
They may avoid suffering and sorrow,
but they cannot learn, feel change, grow, love, live.
Chained by their attitudes, they are slaves, they have forfeited their freedom.
Only a person who risks is free.

A poem I read - Girlie