(no subject)
I remember as a kid standing with my back to a friend and letting myself fall to test how much we trusted each other. If things went as planned I would land inches from the pavement, safely balanced in my friend's hands. There was always that moment where the panic would clutch my heart and I would have to fight my instincts to throw my arms out to protect myself.
Time has passed and I am no longer a young girl in sundresses and pig tails, sharing secrets over pillow fights and giggling about boys. Life is a far more serious event with the burdens and toils that come along with adulthood. Not so may days ago I looked out across my picket fence yard in our Jones' neighbourhood and watched my own son play the Trust Game with his buddy's. Sometimes the boys would put out their arms to save themselves... and sometimes the catcher would miss and the laughing wrestling would begin as the victim retaliated. That night the bruises from the pavement were evident as he got ready for bed. My hands wrapped around a warm drink later that night I reviewed my own games of Trust that I had recently been through and evaluated the bruises that were not so visible to the naked eye. No longer is it as funny when the person we trust let's us down and no longer do we accept the challenge of trusting as easily. None the less, we still face the fears that the game mimicked.
So how do we face each dawn and meet head on the challenges and "games" that we know we will face? How do we keep the times we have been dropped from impacting how we treat those around us... or even ourselves? How do we put our life and faith into the hands of one who has let us hit the pavement? Or should we?
Humans are a community based creature. We live as a pack needing the contact of the other members and relying on each other to fulfil the needs of those in the pack. In my opinion, yes, we should trust again. With the aid of wisdom and experience, we should approach the trust game with more care. We pick those we play with perhaps a bit more carefully but we still play. But how?
Many articles, books and self help tapes out there talk of Faith... hope... and positive thinking. They encourage us to self evaluate our previous choices and develop a system of measure to determine which risks outweigh the potential benefits and vice versa. These are all valid but aren't the reason why to trust again and don't tell us how to not withhold that small part of our selves just in case.
.
What if we viewed trust as a gift to ourselves. We deserve to find what our hearts and souls search and long for. That moment of being caught and feeling safe. That deep feeling of trusting and that trust being returned, creating that bond stronger than words can describe. Are we not worthy of that? Or are our spirits and lives so cheaply possessed that we will settle for solitude even when we are not alone?
Time has passed and I am no longer a young girl in sundresses and pig tails, sharing secrets over pillow fights and giggling about boys. Life is a far more serious event with the burdens and toils that come along with adulthood. Not so may days ago I looked out across my picket fence yard in our Jones' neighbourhood and watched my own son play the Trust Game with his buddy's. Sometimes the boys would put out their arms to save themselves... and sometimes the catcher would miss and the laughing wrestling would begin as the victim retaliated. That night the bruises from the pavement were evident as he got ready for bed. My hands wrapped around a warm drink later that night I reviewed my own games of Trust that I had recently been through and evaluated the bruises that were not so visible to the naked eye. No longer is it as funny when the person we trust let's us down and no longer do we accept the challenge of trusting as easily. None the less, we still face the fears that the game mimicked.
So how do we face each dawn and meet head on the challenges and "games" that we know we will face? How do we keep the times we have been dropped from impacting how we treat those around us... or even ourselves? How do we put our life and faith into the hands of one who has let us hit the pavement? Or should we?
Humans are a community based creature. We live as a pack needing the contact of the other members and relying on each other to fulfil the needs of those in the pack. In my opinion, yes, we should trust again. With the aid of wisdom and experience, we should approach the trust game with more care. We pick those we play with perhaps a bit more carefully but we still play. But how?
Many articles, books and self help tapes out there talk of Faith... hope... and positive thinking. They encourage us to self evaluate our previous choices and develop a system of measure to determine which risks outweigh the potential benefits and vice versa. These are all valid but aren't the reason why to trust again and don't tell us how to not withhold that small part of our selves just in case.
.
What if we viewed trust as a gift to ourselves. We deserve to find what our hearts and souls search and long for. That moment of being caught and feeling safe. That deep feeling of trusting and that trust being returned, creating that bond stronger than words can describe. Are we not worthy of that? Or are our spirits and lives so cheaply possessed that we will settle for solitude even when we are not alone?