Trust

It’s written in my heart, and I know it with certainty. One of the greatest forms of love is trust. 

This week, someone shared this idea, and a light turned on. 

As we reach to understand and feel the presence of a guiding all-power bigger than ourselves, that companioning best friend who thoroughly knows and provides for us, our one duty is to trust.

To trust that we’re not alone, fumbling in the dark. Trust that we are innately worthy of good. Trust that we are already and always loved. Trust that we have a clear calling, a specific purpose…and an infinite power aligning and unfolding it for us.

Trust isn’t just something we do for ourselves. It’s a way that we honor and love our Source. We witness and acknowledge the activity of this power and release our own limited ego. Trust brings receptivity, calm expectation, clarity, and then the natural manifestation of our desires.

As life shifts around us and we reach for new things that feel familiar and safe, including new opportunities to belong and serve with meaning, our job is to know our "what" and "why." Then we trust Love to take care of "how" they come about.

This past year, I’ve been experiencing a gradual dawning of clarity around my new purpose. As I’ve left behind a large, familiar network and spent more time alone, I've been disciplining myself to persistently, patiently, trust what’s next. It hasn’t come quickly, or easily, but gradually, details are becoming clearer.

I continue to see myself settled in my office in the home that my husband and I have designed. This is my what right now…the vision of myself in a beautiful home that hosts this new growing community, and serves as a joyous hub for family. 

As part of this vision, I’ve been incredibly grateful to witness the continued unfoldment of the beautiful team of generous women with whom I share this Honest Heart journey – a new family. They are like a promise that anchors my trust.

While I no longer have the daily community of children and their friends, and in-person work cohorts, I'm learning to listen more consistently to my constant inner companion. 

I can see what’s coming, and what will come, when I trust. And, as a friend observed this week, this is one way that I can love God – by trusting Her knowing hand in my life, including my purpose, placement and right pace. It also includes how my life aligns with and tethers to others. 

The why is a constant. It’s that driving calling within each of our hearts which companions with our desire to see, believe in, and use our unique God-given strengths and gifts. To feel and express our fullness.

The ways that my distinct gifts and calling are activated are my what. My why, the desire to fulfill my calling. The how? Ahhh…I’ve let that go as I lean in and trust, and continue to envision, with growing clarity and detail, my what and allow my why to motivate me.

Grace companions the patience and persistence that I am honing – reminding me that I am not “less than” in this gentle transition of life purpose, nor “lesser than” in comparison to the ebb and flow of another’s circumstances or calling. I am distinctly me.

If my heart feels my what and why, and I trust Love to reveal the how,I am honoring and responding to the calling of my inner voice. 

You might try this: Ask yourself what your ideal day looks like, then expand it. Last year, I wrote my own ‘life script’, and recorded it audibly so that I can listen to it whenever I need encouragement. When I wrote it, I focused on what my ideal life would FEEL like – describing myself, my surroundings, my priorities, and how I, and others, experience each. I saw tiny details, from the relaxed, linen clothing and ethnic jewelry that I love to wear, to the fragrant flowers and sound of running water that bring tranquility to my environment. I envisioned the laughter and dynamic exchanges that happen in my home, and the warmth and understanding that I hope others feel when they're with me.

Try envisioning your what, and then that feeling taps into your why. Hold to it, unwaveringly, and watch the unfolding clarity of Love’s timing. Trust that the how is there, even if you don’t see it yet.

While the world so often focuses on trust as something that we earn or lose, I like to keep my eye on its true meaning. As the apostle John put it, “We love him because he first loved us.” Because we are loved first, our what and why known, our purpose and care assured, we can move forward with trust that the Divine will reveal all the details.

As Anne Morrow Lindbergh shares in Gift from the Sea, “I would like to achieve a state of inner spiritual grace from which I could function and give as I was meant to in the eye of God.”