Tuesday, January 21, 2020

Step into trust



I am participating in the
 Slice of Life.  
All participants are writing about one moment, one part of their day, 
on Tuesdays.
Thank you, Two Writing Teachers!


Step into trust
(poetic thoughts about trust)

It begins with self.
Can I?
Will I?
Should I?
Do I?
Yes, I.
My toddler granddaughter takes tentative steps, 
just one, then two, 
now about six,
before she's back on her knees and crawling,
not entirely convinced that she can walk. 
She's learning to trust herself, 
her body, 
her abilities.
Trust.
Often,
perhaps most typically,
trust is intertwined with others.
I remember vividly
my early lessons
of broken trust. 
Best friends, 
until, one day, in that bathroom stall,  
overhearing her unkind words about me,
to another so-called friend,
and trust
was broken.
Or,
first love,
until, one day, my brother saw him 
loving on another girl,
and trust
was broken.
Me. Them.
It feels, for awhile, impossible to trust,
impossible to know how.
Is this, mutual?
Trust, myself and them.
Trust takes courage,
a blind move towards something more.
Trust is essential
amongst groups of people,
in families,
communities,
organizations,
with colleagues,
as citizens in this nation,
inhabitants of this planet.
Trusting,
sharing,
bonds, goals, mission, rights,
system.
The more the circle of people widens,
the slower, more complicated, more difficult it is
to keep trust,
to move towards a common goal.
Trust grows with
hope,
conviction,
dreams,
together.
I know people who've given up trust.
Given up trying.
Now, locked within.
I feel lucky that
so much of the time
trust has been good for me.
Over time,
I've come to see,
it can feel that trust is dependent on others,
certainly it is a leap of faith,
a step to the unknown,
but,
I wonder,
if it is still
all about self.
finding the courage within.
Can I?
Will I?
Should I?
Do I?
Yes, I.
Step.



3 comments:

  1. Wow-- what a journey from first small steps to important statements about the world we live in, and then back to the initial repetition.

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  2. Maureen,
    I love the movement in this poem from a toddler’s self-trust to the trust we build w/friends, to the trust we invest in our nation’s institutions. Somewhere we begin to distrust ourselves, our judgments. I’ve struggled placing trust in people and am careful not to divulge what can ultimately hurt me when someone breaks that trust. And so I wonder how we as a country rebuild trust in our national foundations.

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  3. This is such a magnificent poem. I absolutely love the recurring statements and the way you wove the many faces trust can take across a life.

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