YIN AND YANG

A home-built slip 'n slide in Indonesia - the kind of thing engineers think up when they've got too much time on their hands.

My hubby is much more of a risk-taker than I am, and that's a good thing.  We balance each other.  Were it not for him, I'd have stayed in Dallas forever, doing whatever my folks wanted me to do, liking what they thought I should like, and I sure as heck wouldn't have two blog's worth of stuff to write about.  On the other hand, were it not for me, John would have died a tragic death, or been horribly maimed, years ago!

Sometimes, it's good to step out of one's comfort zone -- try new things, even if you don't want to, like maybe, learning to drive a stick-shift car, on the wrong side of the road, in a foreign country that doesn't seem to have any traffic rules other than "He with the loudest horn has the right-of-way."  Or perhaps, just learning to pump your own gas, or trying to body-surf, or getting a microwave oven, or using a computer or cell phone, going back to school, starting a garden design business, applying for a job I had no experience for but knew I'd love and be good at,  or even starting a blog.  I might never have done any of this, were it not for John's two hands on my rear, always shoving me along, despite the gouges my heels were digging in the floor.

Occasionally, though, I really do have to draw the line.  I think that's why God gave me more than my share of common sense, so that I can fast forward and see all the possible outcomes of a particular situation.  Have you ever known a person who used to have a fairly decent life, and you wonder how it ended up a total trainwreck?  Well, it was probably because they decided to take a little risk -- something as simple as leaving a space heater running all night to keep the pipes from freezing -- an no one tried to talk him out of it.  No one asked him, "But what if it catches the whole neighborhood on fire?  What if someone gets killed?  Would you be able to live with the consequences, cuz I know I sure couldn't!"

So, like I said, we balance each other.

P.S.  See that slip 'n slide the guys built in Indonesia?  They put a hump at the bottom to slow you down and keep you from running into the trees.  Only, instead of slowing John down, it sent him airborne, he lost hold of his little floatie thing, and he came down with a horrible thud, right on his tailbone.