Last month we talked about what it means to be a people of identity. Identity for me means I can no longer hide on the fence. I can no longer be so wishy-washy about carefully couching my position on things so as not to be offensive to anyone. Risky business, but Identity was last month’s theme so maybe I don’t need to worry about it anymore. Maybe I can just ignore it and move on to the next month’s theme. But wait… darn it. If I have an opinion about something, it might be different from your opinion, and that would be to risk people not liking me. If I want to be a person of identity then I have to put myself out there. To truly have my own identity I discovered I have to let go of my desire to be liked by everyone. Risk is simply a natural segue from Identity. The more I want to come out as Susie, the more risk I need to be willing to take. As a straight white person, I have often admired the courage and bravery of the LGBTQ folks who came out of the closet to make a conscious decision to not hide who they are. So today I want to come out of my closet and risk letting you see me. I want to live my life as a verb. To be Susie I have to be engaged in Susie-ing. And that is risky business.

As William Arthur Ward puts it:

To laugh is to risk appearing a fool,
To weep is to risk appearing sentimental.
To reach out to another is to risk involvement,
To expose feelings is to risk exposing your true self.

To place your ideas and 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.

This is what we try to be all about in our Adult Religious Exploration programs. If you want to join in the conversations, look to our website: click on the link http://www.tahomauu.com/learning/adults/ to go directly to our Adult Learning page.

~ Namaste,

Susie