A Silver Platter

 

I love hard.

I care deep.

I wear my emotions on my sleeve. 

I also offer others trust on a silver platter. 

                                    

                                

Trust is something I openly share with those I meet. If I don't know a person, they haven't given me  reason to not trust them. This is who I am. I enjoy assuming the best in others and giving them my all. Now don't get me wrong. I won't walk up to the first person I meet and spew my deepest thoughts or personal information. However, I will openly get to know them. 

I find that being who I am is more difficult for others. My vulnerability in sharing, caring, loving, giving and trusting often has people on edge. I am not sure if that is because I am extremely open or if it is because others believe trust needs to be earned. 

I recently allowed several teens at our house for my first ever teenage New Years Eve party. I shared with all of them that I assumed they would be kind and respectful to each other and follow the rules while in our home. Although I knew many of the teens arriving, there were several I hadn't met before. I explained that they all had my trust. I told them I have no reason not to trust any of them. I went on to say that if they made a decision to break my trust it would be a difficult journey to earn it back. 

January 1, 2022 I woke up to several teens sleeping in my basement.  It looked like a morgue with dead bodies laying all over the floor. There was a pile of boots, hats and gloves that carried with them the smell of the fire they had the night before. I saw empty chip bags, pop cans, water bottles, cell phone chargers in every outlet and smelly boy socks. It looked like it would take hours to have my house back to normal again. 

As they were waking up I made them breakfast. They ate together, shared funny moments from the night before. When they finished eating, each one of them took their plates to the sink and thanked us for allowing them to have a fire the night before.

I began doing the dishes and hearing trucks start up outside. I believe it was close to negative 30 degrees in Minnesota that night. I was fully expecting them to all leave and go about their day. However, I went to the basement a short time later to find out that ever sleeping bag was rolled up, each cot was put away, the chip bags clipped together, pop cans picked up and the garbage was taken out. You guys, I didn't even ASK them. They just did it. This is trust! I believe they felt trusted and respected and in turn wanted to keep the door open for future gatherings. 

Could you imagine if I started the night out assuming the teens would not follow the house rules or that all teens make bad decisions? Perhaps I shamed them or ran through a list of things not to do? 

Maybe I was just lucky. I won't ever know. Deep down I think that they felt trusted and didn't want to break the trust they were given. Typically speaking not a ton of people speak highly of teens and especially not teen boys. 

I am curious how the world might change if we leaned into assuming the best in others and trusting from the beginning. Is there an opportunity to get hurt? Of course there is. I try to think about all of the missed opportunities when I am cautious and don't jump in with two feet. I understand that we are all different and have all had different experiences that allow us to trust freely or have others earn our trust first. It is a gamble and it is a gamble I am willing to take. 

Some of my relationships have an amazing ironed out sheet of paper

Some of my relationships have a few wrinkles.

Yet look like the image below. 

I am willing to take the risk. 

I thrive on deep meaningful relationships.