On Trusting the Road Ahead

It'll all be OK

I remember back about 12 years ago to the time that my wife and I first talked about the idea of taking our daughter, Annabel, out of the mainstream education system to home educate her.

We knew it was what we wanted for her, and it’s what Annabel wanted for herself, but, understandably, we were very hesitant, because as parents we want what is best for her and even though we were 100% on our choice, we were still fearful to actually do it, and then started second-guessing ourselves.

It wasn’t until I talked to friends about it that they all seemed to notice the same thing, that they could see we knew it was the right thing to do, and so we went ahead, and to be honest, it was a great decision.

How many things in life do we stop ourselves from doing because we start to ruminate and get all up in our heads about, and then just walk away from the idea because, basically, we’ve lost trust, not only in our own decision-making but in life itself.

Leading the lifestyle we do means we’ve had to nurture a trust in life, that things will turn out fine, especially when we live in such unknowns.
I would say we’ve even learnt to embrace those unknowns, things like, will there be a place to stay, will we be able to get to a certain destination, will there be food, etc.
But that’s only having learnt to trust as far as our travel goes, what about other things in life?

Sometimes it can seem a bigger ask to trust when things seem to be pretty dire, when you can’t see a way out of a certain situation or circumstances, what then, can we still feel the same trust?

As humans, we all have wants and needs, and sometimes we can get pretty selfish in pursuit of those wants.
Of course, we want everything to turn out OK for us, but what if life doesn’t work that way?

I suppose what I’m really saying is, could we trust in life even if the outcome wasn’t necessarily what we want it to be?

We might all say to ourselves or each other, “It’ll be OK”, but what if that being OK is not the OK we want, it’s not our desired or preferred outcome.
Could we get to a point where it’s all OK in spite of whether we think it’s good for us or not, because it’s how life is unfolding?

Most often, having trust means you can step into the unknown and have faith that it’s all going to turn out fine, and that is amazing and liberating, but I think true freedom comes from being able to step into the unknown, knowing it will all be just the way it’s meant to be, whether I’m personally fine or not.

There can be a relaxing into life in a way that means we’re not beholden to outcomes and wants, and we can just be curious as to what will unfold for us along the way.
Don’t get me wrong, even though I get brief glimpses of this, I’m still far from being there in my own life, but that’s OK too, because if I want it, then it’s just another outcome I want personally.

There’s nothing wrong with having things we want to achieve, because absolutely those things can drive us and give us purpose, but actually having trust in the unknown, in the road ahead, can be just what we need to be who we truly are.

Until the next step on the journey.
Stuart