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Article 4, 2005

TRUST ME

"As soon as you TRUST yourself, you'll know how to live."
-Goethe

While having lunch in the park today, I learned an invaluable lesson from, of all things, one of God's smallest creatures-a ground squirrel. It was a beautiful day and I was trying to pull myself out of a slight funk by appreciating the magnificent cliff-top view of the Pacific Ocean that was mine to have for free. I was having a certain degree of success lifting my mood, when I was approached by a small, hungry ground squirrel. A little apprehensive about letting him get too close, I tossed a tiny piece of my whole wheat tortilla to him, hoping that kind of food would not do him harm, and off he ran with his treat. It was a big hit and he soon came back for more.

I remembered I had a bag of baby carrots with me and thought they might be better for him and tossed one of them his way. That also went over big with my new friend who continued to move closer. Gradually, it occurred to me that he was trusting me, so I decided to trust him (within the confines of my common sense, of course). I held out a baby carrot, and the little squirrel came up to me and politely took it out of my hand, put it in his mouth and scurried off to the shade of the nearby bushes to eat it.

Soon, other squirrels gathered in the bushes and started to nose up to him, but he refused to share his goods. I offered each of them the carrots too, but they would not approach me. Back came my furry little friend, time and time again, to claim his reward from my hand while the others just watched.

The lesson from this tiny creature that struck me so poignantly and lifted the remnants of my mood was: because he was willing to risk trusting, he got supplied. He didn't know how I would react to him but he was willing to take a chance, and, because of his willing attitude, he got what he wanted while the others did without because of their fear.

We can all learn how to better navigate our current and potential relationships, in both our personal and professional lives, from the example set by this little being: Some people will ignore you, some people aren't friendly and will hurt you, sure, but some will respond to you and give you what you want and need. Come out of your hiding place, trust your instincts and use your common sense, risk trusting others, and you could reap emotional, spiritual, and physical nourishment as your reward.

Furthering your life goals requires similar reliance testing. As you think about your goals, take a few minutes to answer the following questions:

What are three things, big or small, that you have been wanting to get help with but have been hesitating (or been too proud) to ask anyone for assistance?

Are you now willing to ask as many times and as many people as it takes to get help with these things?

Whom can you start with?

Finally, how will it change your life to let yourself actually need help and to trust yourself to get it from a reliable source?

I trust you can do it!

"Ultimately, we must learn to trust ourselves. When we do this intimately and intelligently, the world opens full of meaning before us. We find that we ourselves are the doorway to a fathomless understanding of the source of life itself. We need only to learn to walk through it."
-James Thornton

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