The fallacy of trust

For some people entering unknown territory is very scary, we don’t know what to expect and are worried what the other parties may think or do. Some are bothered but take the risk anyway because we put on a brave front, and then there are those that go all out opening new doors and letting ourselves into new situations without a care. But how safe is it to not worry? Is it sensible to forget everything our mothers taught us? But they did tell us only to cross the road with the walk sign and yet how many of us do? Taking a little risk can pay off big sometimes, but sometimes can leave us penniless with a little pain a lot less dignity. Recently I found myself lost in a place I thought was home. We have to wonder when is our trust ever wisely invested?

It seems that when we go seeking things that are fake it is only fair that we stumble across fake people. But when we go looking for this, we become false to ourselves. We invest a lot of trust in the people that are helping us, but in the end the money means more to them than your trust. We have to realise when it is sensible to put our trust on the table when the opposite player holds the upper hand. In the safest environments we can be tricked into losing everything we have, because we are lured into a false sense of security. What we don’t realise is that fake people are surrounded by more fake people whom all are in the same game, and so even the safest environments are never secure.

There comes a time when we question our beliefs, we wonder who to put our trust in; ourselves, or others who have our best interests at heart. Sometimes though we don’t know what is best for ourselves because we don’t feel that close to anything in particular. We have no preference so we have no idea. Sometimes we are just worried about what others will think, and are more concerned for their thoughts than for our own. But we have to look inside ourselves, listen to ourselves and know exactly who we are. If we do we’ll find our security and then we can place our trust, unforgivingly, in all the right places.

But who are these other people to judge us, they make choices just like us; they make decisions like we do. They make bad ones as well, but we don’t hold them to it, so why do they us? They may say things about us, to our face or not, we hear them but we shouldn’t let it bother us too much. After all we are our own person, we know what we are and even if they are right it is completely our choice to live a lie if we have too. And if we do then what they say can be nothing more than rumours.

We find comfort sometimes from small things, familiar faces, familiar places and voices, and sometimes just being told that a friend enjoys your company can mean so much. It means that you hold a special place in someone’s life, that you do have meaning, purpose and presence. Not everyone has that. We all have our issues and problems and some let them get to us. But we shouldn’t because life is just a continuation of problems, one after the other, small ones, and big ones. Ones that have lasting effects. We don’t know what magic tomorrow will bring, we don’t know if dreams will be reached or whether more setbacks will be caused, but at this time of year we have more hope than ever. All the movies prove that dreams do come true, even if it is all a bit Disney.

Love yourself, love your friends and listen to who you are not what other people want you to be. Be the person you always dreamed of being. Take a chance, drop a line, prove people wrong. Trust yourself. But there is one rule our mothers gave us we must never forget, never trust a stranger. Because like the roads, they’re all different and in one swift move we can lose it all.

Merry Christmas.