Your life is one big game of poker.

The stakes are: your happiness; your success; your friendships; your companionships; luck and your health. It’s a two person game: you versus the dealer and he gets to be “Fate’. Most of the time, Fate deals you a pretty average hand. He manages to create a balance between the stakes that is acceptable to both players. As the poker game progresses, you both learn the cards and start to learn how to anticipate what comes next: he raises his happiness stakes and you cover with your health. Sometimes you win and get both – feeling great. But sometimes the dealer just beats you and you take a tumble. You can only curse him and hope to get it back with the next hand. 

The time always comes when you have a full house. Three Jacks and two Aces. You’re gambling friendship for companionship and the stakes are increasing. What do you do? Does he have four of a kind? You know he doesn’t have more than two aces, but does he have those two plus three queens? If you raise him or see him and loose, you have lost all that friendship and the opportunity for companionship. But if you win, you gain your life companion and you get to keep your friend. That is worth winning! 

But is it worth the gamble? Is the potential win worth the potential loss? You don’t know whether or not to take it. He could be bluffing. So you just sit at the table with your cards in your hand – looking at the stakes and hoping to God that Fate doesn’t have a Royal Flush. 

In this situation someone looking over your shoulder may advise you to just lay your cards on the table. In one action, you will know the outcome. That’s easy advice for someone with nothing to lose. If only they could take a peek over Fate’s shoulder and tell you what he has waiting. They can only speculate, so don’t listen to them. You know your options. In the end it is your decision whether you see him or continue to raise the stakes. Or you could simply fold, pack up your cards and let Fate win another hand. Can you see him smiling as he picks up your stakes from the middle of the table? He has your happiness and your health. Your companionship is lost and your friend has left you because you opened up to them. Your luck has just been won by the turn of a card. Back to the beginning with an empty stake. 

Do you know what I say? “Stuff it! Try to get him on the next hand!”