Happy Friday! The super-encouraging Lisa-Jo is hosting another 5-minute writing party. And the guest of honor today is the word, "RISK." So I wrote for 5 minutes, and this is what came out:

START.

You risk every time you love

C.S. Lewis says because you will suffer loss

at some point

and I hope I am not misquoting him....

anyway, we're facing this right now with our

beloved dog Jubi aging faster, and

faster each day, but then he will rally,

but at some point, he willl not be able to rally,

but I'm still glad I took the risk to love him.

Every time I write and hit publish on

this blog, I risk as I share a part of my soul.

Some posts are harder than others to share

as I may be sharing more intimately, and

I don't want to be misunderstood, or

judged, but I have to take that risk.

You do, too, whenever, you create your

art, and leave an imprint of yourself on it,

and you wonder whether the critics will

be kind or not. But an artist has to take

that risk to live fully alive, and to be all she was meant to be.

She can't hide her art forever without also killing

a part of herself because our art like us

needs to breathe, stretch, and grow

in the light and fresh air. Our art

wants to run free and wild, but

first it has to learn to walk.

STOP.

Found the C.S. Lewis quote:

“There is no safe investment. To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket - safe, dark, motionless, airless - it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. The alternative to tragedy, or at least to the risk of tragedy, is damnation. The only place outside Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is Hell.”
― C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves (source:http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/show/350762)

What risks are you taking? in life? in your art?

Attending my first writer's conference is my current risk although I have struggled to call myself a writer...but thanks to Jeff Goins, I am declaring I am a writer. (big gulp)

Thanks for taking a risk and sharing.

Are you joining 15 habits of great writers with Jeff Goins?

P.S. FYI, in case you were wondering, Jubi arranged his blue pillow by himself. (We said good-bye to our beloved Jubi on July 11, 2012.)

Please join the party at The Gypsy Mama by either linking up and/or reading other entries. 

© Soul Stops/Dolly Lee 2012.