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“When one jumps over the edge, one is bound to land somewhere.”
thedominantprompts:
Life is a constant balance of risk and reward. The greatest rewards often require the greatest risks in order to pay off. I’ve been continually learning and refining this lesson ever since I was young; rarely if ever will you reap great rewards for low risk taken.
This is what this quote speaks of to me; it speaks of one who has reached an edge, a limit, a stopping point. Often times, when we reach edges and limits, we stop and look. We think, rethink, and second-guess. Many times - maybe most times - we end up taking a step back, or walking away. But when we should choose to jump over the edge - when we push the limit, attempt to break past the barrier, and reach further than some defined line - in that moment when we are metaphorically two feet in the air, we have the opportunity for greatest reward.
What goes up must come down; one is bound to land somewhere. That somewhere may not be where you expected to land. You may miss your mark completely. You may fall in the water; you may fall and tumble. You may have a bad memory of a previous jump over a previous edge that makes you never want to try again. But this is, truly, the essence of life: to fear, and fail, and jump again anyway.
The greatest risk, the greatest fear, the scariest jump that I have observed in my short years is the risk of being yourself. And this can mean any number of things in a number of scenarios. But in the end, it means not worrying about what other people will think or judge, that they’ll find you weird or damaged or lacking. That you’ll deviate from some established societal norm. We certainly know what that feels like in the BDSM community sometimes.
It never becomes easy, really. Repeated practice makes it come quicker, like a battle drill, like standing at the edge of a plane with a parachute on your back, but that moment of fear and panic as you stand at the edge never really goes away no matter how many times you jump.
And that’s what BDSM is to me - heightened risk, heightened reward. For what is risk but making yourself vulnerable to pain and loss? And it’s not just about pain; for some, there’s no pain involved at all. It’s about complete openness, honesty, and communication. Being really fully naked and vulnerable in a raw and real way.
And when we open ourselves to the greatest vulnerability, we leap to the opportunity for the greatest rewards.
Life is a constant balance of risk and reward. The greatest rewards often require the greatest risks in order to pay off. I’ve been continually learning and refining this lesson ever since I was young; rarely if ever will you reap great rewards for low risk taken.
This is what this quote speaks of to me; it speaks of one who has reached an edge, a limit, a stopping point. Often times, when we reach edges and limits, we stop and look. We think, rethink, and second-guess. Many times - maybe most times - we end up taking a step back, or walking away. But when we should choose to jump over the edge - when we push the limit, attempt to break past the barrier, and reach further than some defined line - in that moment when we are metaphorically two feet in the air, we have the opportunity for greatest reward.
What goes up must come down; one is bound to land somewhere. That somewhere may not be where you expected to land. You may miss your mark completely. You may fall in the water; you may fall and tumble. You may have a bad memory of a previous jump over a previous edge that makes you never want to try again. But this is, truly, the essence of life: to fear, and fail, and jump again anyway.
The greatest risk, the greatest fear, the scariest jump that I have observed in my short years is the risk of being yourself. And this can mean any number of things in a number of scenarios. But in the end, it means not worrying about what other people will think or judge, that they’ll find you weird or damaged or lacking. That you’ll deviate from some established societal norm. We certainly know what that feels like in the BDSM community sometimes.
It never becomes easy, really. Repeated practice makes it come quicker, like a battle drill, like standing at the edge of a plane with a parachute on your back, but that moment of fear and panic as you stand at the edge never really goes away no matter how many times you jump.
And that’s what BDSM is to me - heightened risk, heightened reward. For what is risk but making yourself vulnerable to pain and loss? And it’s not just about pain; for some, there’s no pain involved at all. It’s about complete openness, honesty, and communication. Being really fully naked and vulnerable in a raw and real way.
And when we open ourselves to the greatest vulnerability, we leap to the opportunity for the greatest rewards.
Papa Tony:
I am big fan of taking chances, and then LEARNING from them.
Many folks crave a life that is a flat, horizontal line. Nothing changes. The only person who REALLY lives a life like that is… a dead person.
Many folks are terrified of taking chances, because WHAT IF I FAIL?!?? Sure, that protects them from disaster, but it also cuts off the possibility that life can have big, beautiful peaks of triumphant growth and happiness.
If you keep learning from every experience, and taking more chances, you become WISER. Then, you still have peaks and valleys in your experiences, but the trend is UPWARDS. Like this:
So, over time, as we become wiser, the lows aren't AS low, and the highs just keep getting better.
Many folks crave a life that is a flat, horizontal line. Nothing changes. The only person who REALLY lives a life like that is… a dead person.
Many folks are terrified of taking chances, because WHAT IF I FAIL?!?? Sure, that protects them from disaster, but it also cuts off the possibility that life can have big, beautiful peaks of triumphant growth and happiness.
If you keep learning from every experience, and taking more chances, you become WISER. Then, you still have peaks and valleys in your experiences, but the trend is UPWARDS. Like this:
So, over time, as we become wiser, the lows aren't AS low, and the highs just keep getting better.
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