I struggle with this too. I'm not sure that very much of what we say is not to get a reaction/response from people. And yeah I trust myself to be able to deal with anything...but that doesn't mean I want to just leave myself open for bad gambles and be in pain all of the time. I want to be open to things that are worth the gamble!

so how do you think you determine what is worth the gamble? do you look inside and see how much you need to express something? or how good of a risk the person seems? I have someone right now who I sort of look at like the emotional lottery. I know he is a terrible risk, but if it paid off it would be truely magical. For him too. I take the risk because of the potential and because the pain has been overwhelmingly learning/growing pain. If it starts turning to a different kind of pain I will have to stop reaching out the gambles...although I think I would still play if he handed me a ticket.

So how do *you* decide what is a good gamble with your trust? knowing you can handle anything but that you don't want to handle crap all of the time...how do you decide where to put your precious time/energy/emotion...trust?