“Things break all the time. Glass and dishes and fingernails. Cars and contracts and potato chips. You can break a record, a horse, a dollar. You can break the ice. There are coffee breaks and lunch breaks and prison breaks. Day breaks, waves break, voices break. Chains can be broken. So can silence, and fever… promises break. Hearts break.”
― Jodi Picoult, Handle with Care
It’s what I’ve always expected from life. For things to go wrong. That makes me overtly cautious.
The upside is that I am always pleasantly surprised when something goes right. It’s a better feeling than indifferent entitlement.
Some will insist that you need to stay positive and to steadfastly insist something is possible. Yet I am a realist and the Universe is a very hostile place for human endeavor.
I think of the things that are possible and positive as coins in my pocket. Out of sight yet comforting to the touch. Available to spend at my leisure without worry.
Whereas the probable and negative demand my full attention. They are the enemy. Insidiously waiting for the opportunity to turn improbable while masquerading as a quarter in a pocket.
All the things will break. Eventually. The challenge lies in choosing how they break. For better or worse.