Trust That All is Well

I've been practicing trust. I've been practicing trusting my own processes and sovereignty, divinity and ability to create for myself the experiences that best serve me. It's a bit of a challenge sometimes, but I feel that I'm getting the hang of it.

There is another level of trust, one that I am only now beginning to realize. If I trust myself, do I trust others? Do I trust, for example, that my aging mother is exactly where and as she should be? Do I trust that my extremely stressed out husband is exactly where and as he should be? Do I trust that the experiences he is providing for himself best serve him at the highest level?

People talk to me about their lives and every time someone tells me about something challenging or difficult that happened to them I make sympathetic noises. "Oh, oh my goodness...." I honestly don't know how to respond verbally to these sorts of expressions. If I truly and deeply and totally believe that everything that happens to us and through us is for our highest good, then why would I express anything but delight in everything that happens? Yet people are struggling. My friend fell and hurt her knee quite badly; should I be delighted about that?

"Oh, oh my goodness...."

On one level I am in complete trust that she is sovereign and divine, that she, whether consciously or otherwise, is creating for herself the perfect sequence of experiences to bring her to where she has chosen, on the level of soul, to be.

On another level, a social level, I am expected to make the socially appropriate response to her experience of pain, of upset. So, I do.

And then there is my propensity to want to bring others to where I am, as if I were some sort of Moses in the desert of their lives. When I put it like that, it's easy to see just how absurd it is. I am divine human being. And so are you. And so is everybody else. No matter how it might appear; so is everybody else. The drunk, the drug addict, the prostitute, the politician, the police officer, the compulsive liar, the battered spouse, the hoarder, the fear-monger.... All of them are divine human beings, perfect always in their imperfection, beloved of God and of all that is of God in us. 

And it is not for me, or for you, or for anyone else to 'save' them. Such is the way of self-delusion, as if I could possibly know what is for their highest good. As I wrote in a song once, "Minds will question, souls will know." It is for us to allow them to be what they will be, to become what they will become. It's easy enough to do this with strangers. It's almost impossible to do it with those whom we genuinely care for, as if they were a part of us. Our children, our spouses, our parents and siblings.

They say that family is the greatest teacher of true compassion, true wisdom, true love. True compassion accepts all that a person is and chooses to be and to experience. True wisdom offers that acceptance with a humility that gives the Other space in which to move and grow in unfettered freedom. True love seeks nothing for itself, but only the will of the Other in his or her being and becoming. 

So now, I'm going to practice another kind of trusting. I'm going to practice trusting not only myself and my own journey, but all others and their journeys. It's a bit of an ego blow; acknowledging that they do not need me to get them anywhere, to teach them anything, to guide them in any way.

Unless they ask, of course. I know a lot about gardens and plants. I could teach them that if they ask. I know a lot about living alone and cooking for one person. I could give advice on that subject if someone inquired.

When I was younger (not much younger), I had a passionately held desire to be the wise one who would bring others to wisdom, to peace, to joy. Such is folly. And it dismisses the sovereignty and divine knowing, soul-self knowing, of the Other. There's a name for it, a rather nasty name. It's called co-dependence. That's when I am dependent on another's dependence on me. It's sneaky because it hides under an illusion of grace and wisdom and generosity of spirit.

So take a deep breath, Lu. Take a deep breath and learn to trust that all is well in ALL of creation, not just my little corner of it. And especially in these days of high drama as we approach the year 2012, there are people going through all kinds of dramatic events and experiences. Offer the self in its whole-being. Offer your energy, but not your guidance. Trust them. Trust Gaia. Trust God. Trust this process. You don't have to save anyone. Get it? No one needs to be saved. They are exactly where and how they should be.

Trust that all is well.