Walden Pond in Fall

We want to live our lives to the fullest. Henry David Thoreau wrote in Walden Pond,
“I do not want to come to the end of my life and find that I had not lived.” With all
of life’s stresses, it is sometimes hard to find the energy to devote our entire being
to the work we are called to do. Regardless of whether we can always accomplish
this, the desire is frequently still there. In order to live a full life, we often have to take
risks to make sure we are living the full authentic life. These aren’t risks like being a race
car driver, or parachuting out of an airplane. But going to places a little outside our
comfort zone: agreeing to make a presentation our boss has asked us to do; agreeing
to sew a costume for our child’s fourth grade play (and not being a seamstress); driving
someone to a medical appointment an hour away and not feeling comfortable driving
that long of a distance. (And I am sure you can think of many more things that are
outside your comfort zone.)

But Helen Prejean writes in an essay entitled How Can I Find God: “The ‘God part’ of us
is always the one stepping out…(the one) to walk on water and to take the risk. To go to
places beyond the part of us that wants to be safe and secure and with the comfortable
and the familiar…”

There are things we are asked to do that feel risky to us (not unethical).
We sometimes, however, have to take the risk and put our toe in the water, but we don’t
have to swim out to the deep end. Often times there are great rewards with taking even
a small risk.

Mary Anne Totten
CPE Intern