Trust
As if you'd never been betrayed.
There's a reason we still read Shakespeare after all this time. He understood that betrayals come in all forms. Betrayal of county, of friends, of family, of love and lovers, of yourself. If you are surprised by that last one, perhaps you haven't been paying enough attention.
Trust. As if you didn't know better.
While we walk around guarding ourselves against every conceivable threat from the outside, most of us betray ourselves in small and big ways all day, everyday. Mostly it's the little voice that we carry around inside us. The one that nags, criticizes, and unnecessarily narrates our lives all day long. (And all night for those insomniacs among us.) Once we turn on the light of awareness, we realize that all this listening we do to this sociopathic voice in our heads is exhausting.
Trust. As if you'd never been burned.
We never really get used to being let down. By ourselves, our friends, our government, those we place on pedestals. Yes, there is a place for discretion. But more often then not, our mistrust sets in motion a negative cycle. Call it phenomenology or whatever you like, but all things are connected. How we look at others has a direct correlation not only with how they see us, but how they act towards us. If we start with our hearts open, we’ll likely not attract the spirit of betrayal.
Trust. As if no one would ever be the wiser.
Trust does not come without risk. This is not a story of unicorns and rainbows. Life is risk. The only way to protect ourselves is to die. Either physically, or spiritually and emotionally. I believe, with the exception of a Caesar or two, we are not so much afraid of betrayal as we are of looking foolish, of getting our feelings hurt, our egos bruised, our so called reputations tarnished. If it helps, next time you are doubting whether to trust your heart, pretend no one is watching. Pretend you fell on the ice and got up before anyone saw. Because, probably no one will know anyway. And it is likely no one will care half as much as you do.
Trust. As if your life depended on it.
Because, well, it does. What is the value of a life where you have to walk around constantly checking your back like some meth dealer in an alley? Hopefully that is rhetorical. Unless of course you’re a meth dealer who dwells in alleys. And then, well, you have other problems besides trust. Except it wouldn’t hurt for you to trust that you are worth more than this and to trust that life has infinitely more to offer.
Trust. As if there were no other choices.
Because, well, there really isn’t a better choice. We must trust, on some level, in order to function at all in life. Every day we trust in a million little ways. Not just that the lights will work, the water will flow, the car will start, the garbage will be picked up, the bank won’t give away your money. But also that the thousands of cars we pass will stay in their own lanes, that gravity will continue to work, that our hearts won’t forget to beat, that we won’t have to remind our lungs to breathe.
Trust. As if it were as essential as oxygen.
We do not give trust its due. Like oxygen, we file away its importance until we are under water. Until we are frightened and our hearts have already slammed shut. And then there’s little chance we’ll remember. But the unspoken truth is that it is trust, not fear, that makes the world go ‘round. If fear were the order of the day, if vigilance was the reigning factor, then nothing would get done. The richest of people on the planet trust countless others all day long, every day. Neither Gates nor Jobs, nor Musk nor Oprah built their empires on their own. We rely upon countless others every day for more things than we can count. Look at that sandwich you are eating. Who grew the grains for the bread, the vegetables, the mustard seeds? Who milked the cows and who cultured the cheese? Who salted and hung the prosciutto? Who mined the metals and built the toaster? Who welded the steel counter where the ingredients were assembled? If we did not trust in these processes, we’d never take a bite.
Trust. As if to do anything else would be unthinkable.
When we throw away trust, we throw away our key to the door of humanity. We perpetuate more of the violence we inflict regularly upon ourselves and others with our misinformed judgments and our withheld compassion. There is no one who is not deserving of your compassion, starting first with yourself. When we have compassion for ourselves, we find it easier to have compassion for others. When we show and are shown compassion, trust naturally follows. When we trust, we retrieve the key to the door, and once opened, life’s abundance is allowed to flow inside.