During my drive back and forth to Emmie’s to watch the kids, I listen to a lot of audio books. Words float on the air, in and out of my head like much of those spoken in life. However, now and then a group of words come together to beg me sit up straight, pay attention, and then, to further make a point, proceed to lodge themselves firmly between my ears. Such was the case on a recent trip, and I’ve been mentally chewing on them since.

“You’ve spent all these years only living half your life. You only see what you could lose instead of what you could gain.” ~ Karen White

See what I mean? That’s an “a ha” sentence right there.

Because that’s often you and me. Even if you are a naturally positive person (that’s nothing if not a glass-half-full-half-empty scenario), we all teeter on the pinnacle of half-living. We all struggle to maintain the balance.

But maintain it we must, for when you stay only on the side of seeing what could be lost, you do one of two things. You either hold everything – everyONE – with tight, strangling fists, or at arms-length, and, folks, either way will ensure loss as readily as poison.

What if you risked letting go of the stranglehold, or, conversely, stepped from the shadows to reach out? What then? Might you still lose what you treasure? Yes. But you stand to gain so much more. You give the relationship room to breathe, even as you hold it carefully close, because on the side of gain you learn to live open-handed and open-hearted, and you finally come to realize that you cannot get a return on an investment you never make.

If you are running scared today, polarized by what could be lost, take a good look at where your hands are; take a good look at your heart. You might be missing half of your life and that could just be your biggest loss of all.

The servant given one thousand said, ‘Master, I know you have high standards and hate careless ways, that you demand the best and make no allowances for error. I was afraid I might disappoint you, so I found a good hiding place and secured your money. Here it is, safe and sound down to the last cent.’

“The master was furious. ‘That’s a terrible way to live! It’s criminal to live cautiously like that! If you knew I was after the best, why did you do less than the least? The least you could have done would have been to invest the sum with the bankers, where at least I would have gotten a little interest.

“‘Take the thousand and give it to the one who risked the most. And get rid of this “play-it-safe” who won’t go out on a limb. Throw him out into utter darkness.’” ~ Matthew 25:14-30 MSG