What is it like to not trust anyone to the fullest extent? What is it like to not have that one person - that one individual that we can always have confidence in - to place our faith in? How can we possibly go through life with that ever-present sense of doubt that maybe, just maybe, even our best friend might abandon us?
I just read a note someone wrote and one of the questions was answered with this reply: "Puh, I don't trust anybody 100%, but there are people that I do trust a lot." I had to read that line a few times just to make sure I was seeing the words correctly.
It never occurred to me how much trust I put in the relationships that I have with so many different people. It's something I haven't thought about for a very, very long time. Yet even though this isn't a topic that crosses my mind every day, I'm fairly certain that trust is one of the most crucial aspects of any relationship: your best friend, your little sister, your parents, or even with a complete stranger. Think about it. Even with a complete stranger we at least trust that they won't come storming at us with a knife or ax and start tearing us to pieces. That's basically the limit of trust we are capable of having with a stranger.
Of course friendships are much more intricate. Friends are past the point where all they know about a person is their eye color and the way their smile makes them look like a serial killer. A friend is someone we share our secrets with. Some of our ugliest skeletons come out when we open up those closet doors, and because of the gravity of some of those situations, we put faith in our audience and hope that they have the decency, integrity, and respect to hold our secrets as close to their hearts as we hold them to ours. Sometimes it's not easy for us to shine light in those dark, dusty catacombs, and even when we let light in, there's a small part of us that is a little wary of how much we allow to permeate that darkness. Yet the more light we allow to infuse hope into our lives, the more open we become and the more trust we bestow on those we believe have the maturity, intelligence, and nobility to entrust our secrets to.
It soon becomes second nature for us to put our trust in others. Some would argue that this occurrence is a bad thing because it has the potential to set us up for enormous heartbreak. Some are not so lucky: trust can be betrayed and friendships can be ruined. Lives can be destroyed because of the lies and deceit that sometimes invade such perfect equilibrium. Yet the ability to balance vulnerability and protection is, as I like to call it, a "juggling act of art." It's something into which we all could put a little more effort. Is putting your full trust in someone a bad thing? I strongly believe that it is not. Is there the chance of trust being neglected? Of course. Yet even those situations allow us to modify our idea of trust and rebuild it so it is stronger for the next time around. Not only do those situations strengthen our idea of trust, they also give us power beyond measure, for they provide us with room to grow.
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