Do You Need Trust?

"Trust what is. Resist it—terror!"
—Byron Katie

What if:

You have never been used.
You have never been abused.
You have never been betrayed.
No one has ever lied to you.
No one has ever taken anything from you that you needed.
No one has ever left you.
No one has ever hurt you.
You have everything you need in every moment.
You never made a mistake.
All is well.

"Trust" in our language usually means, "I have every confidence that you will do what I want." It's a nice fantasy; if you believe it, I have a bridge in Brooklyn you might like to buy.

Do you trust God, the Universe, the All-That-Is? Really? Deeply look within. Ask yourself if you still trust the Universe when your stockbroker makes off with all your money or when a hurricane destroys your home. God is everything but not your stockbroker? Not hurricanes? Could it be that God's busy and created crooked businesspeople and earthquakes and tsunamis to show you that you didn't need all that money or a home or your kids?

Radical, isn't it? Who wants to think about these things? I didn't. And in recent years I've had to. I hired that stockbroker. I lost loved ones...we all have. We've all seen the footage of war and natural disaster in the past few years. Some of us were there. For months I couldn't get the smell of 9/11 out of my nose.

Why should we trust? One reason: for our own sake. Trust is not about "other."

True trust is the knowledge that what's here now is perfect, appropriate, just and exactly what you need at exactly the right time. (Even if all that changes five seconds from now.) Byron Katie says, "What's fair is what is." If you don't believe it, look at your life. Look at your bank balance. Look at the world. Try arguing with it. Does it change because you argue? Does the wind change direction when you say so?

Are any of us lovers of what is? Not I. Not yet. But sometimes, yes. That love comes from trust. That trust is not a given. It's not particularly "spiritual" as it requires no faith...only presence. It is a gentle and true state of being. For me, it has come out of inquiry.

In this new year, are you willing to really go for it?

What if nothing terrible has ever happened or ever will?

What if the perfect life you've been resolving to have is here now?

"Expectation is premeditated disappointment."
—Byron Katie


©2007 by Carol L. Skolnick. All rights reserved.

Register here for the January 2007 teleclass series "Transformational
Inquiry: Your New Year's Revolutions"