Some mornings hit me with a blindsided block.
I woke up suddenly with a clogged nose and a jammed up left ear from sleeping hard on the same side all night. Walk into the kitchen to make some coffee and stare dumbfounded at that Chalkboard... and the words just won’t come.
Happens to all of us, even the bastard who has written a few thousand of these things.
“Risk is always better than regret.” That isn't philosophy, but the truth in life.
Risk is walking into the unknown with your chin up. Regret is walking away from the moment and then spending the next ten years wishing you had a do over. Every good thing I ever grabbed in this life came from stepping toward something instead of away from it. Jobs, opportunity, kids, love. Even the screw-ups taught me more than sitting safely on my hands ever did. My Oldman always told me that I would make a shit ton of mistakes in life. Make sure you learn from them the first time and pray to God it isn't an expensive lesson. The older you get the more expensive mistakes become.
The sky is nothing but gray again today. That heavy November lid that hangs over Chicagoland like an old drop cloth. Sunrise at 6:47 comes in a drab gray this morning with darkness coming quick at 4:26 this afternoon. I hate going to the grocery after work in the dark.
Tucked in the Grabber section of the Morning Chalkboard is the real anchor: amorem firmiter tene. Latin for hold fast to love. Not the easy, sweet kind, but the stubborn kind. The kind you stand your ground for. The kind you carry even when the world feels cold and cluttered.
So if you are starting discombobulated this morning, here is the way out:
Take the risk.
Make the move.
Step firmly into the day.
Regret has never done a damn thing for you.
