I spent 8 hours on Saturday bouncing around from casino to casino, watching people spend their paychecks in the hopes of hitting it big.  (I almost had a heart attack when I saw a woman put $250 into a penny slot machine!)

And while at first the gamblers looked like rats at a feeder bar to me, slowly a different picture began to emerge.  It was at the video poker machine, where I heard the first hint of a ‘gambler’s philosophy’.

If you are holding a safe, but relatively small-winning hand, and you have the opportunity – albeit small – to go for the insanely winning hand, then go for the winning hand.

Though the odds of being dealt a royal flush are semi-astronomical, the opportunity to even try is pretty astronomical.

Please don’t mistake me, I am not an advocate of gambling…but the fact is that we are gambling.  Everyday.  Some of us are playing it safe, others are – literally – going for broke.

“Should I take this lower paying position, but I have the possibility of becoming manager, or should I go for the higher paying position with no possibility of advancement?”

What no one ever tells us as kids, and what we probably would have ignored were we told anyway, is that constantly choosing the safe path circumscribes our choices so that we ultimately feel trapped by our lives.

Much of it starts with our parents, which is not surprising.  Our parents want to ensure that we are safe and taken care of.  And so they urge us toward ’safe’ careers and sometimes tell us that our dreams are unrealistic.

And perhaps they are, but that is the nature of dreaming…to reach for what is beyond possibility.

And while it takes courage to leap, it takes even greater courage to watch someone else leap – knowing full well they may fall flat on their faces, that the odds are against them – and support them anyway.

When we are young, we are surrounded by opportunity and so take them for granted.  It isn’t until we are older, and the opportunities fewer, that we realize how precious they were.  That it isn’t just the road not taken, it is taking the road which grows ever narrower with each passing year.

I guess this is why all the ‘chase your dreams’ people recommend doing what you love.

Leap of Joy by Giampaolo Macorig

If your leap is an act of love, even if you fall on your face, you will have felt as though you have flown.