Groundhog on a Trampoline

April 9, 2015

Happy Thursday!  This has been a week of mixed emotions all around.  It was great getting to see Rand Paul on TV announce his intentions on running for president.  It feels good to have a little hope in such a dire time.  I hope that everyone really works hard at becoming educated on all of the candidates this time around.  It's definitely time that the priorities shift in our country.

I'm interested in seeing how soon it takes for the weather to start warming up.  It's taken quite a while for winter to vanish, and it seems like spring is trying - but not very hard.  In typical Pennsylvania fashion, it will be 55 degrees one day, and 22 the next.  Weather reports get it right about 40% of the time.  What do you expect from a state that looks to a groundhog to predict the weather like a genie? Can't trust those rodents!

It's hard to trust anything anymore really.  I've found in my own personal life that trusting is definitely harder than it should be.  It's hard enough to trust the mechanic with your new car, a random teacher with your child, or the surgeon with your life.  What is surprising to me is when those that we find the hardest to trust are those that we should know and care for each day of our lives.

It's strange, you know... when you finally decide to trust someone.  It's like jumping blindly off a cliff with the full understanding that this one person is going to be there with this super big trampoline-type thing that will not only catch you but bounce you right back onto your feet again.  How wonderful!  You step off that super big trampoline-type thing with your hand outstretched... and trip getting off.  Oh wait... that was just me... Where was I? Oh right... You step off that super big trampoline-type thing and with your hand outstretched and that person who you trusted enough to be there to make sure you didn't bump your head is there to take your hand and lead you onward.

Sounds perfect.  Minus the jumping off the cliff part.. that sounds kind of crazy to me.. but I digress.

But sometimes I think that people get tired of the same person jumping off the cliff.  They find that it's a lot easier to find someone who already is down on the ground.  It's less effort. It's less stress and commitment.  It's less heartache if they fall.  And so they walk away from the super big trampoline-type thing while you're midair.  And when you land, you noticed you hit your head on the side, you hit a few rocks on the way down, and your pretty shaken up because no one is there when you hit the bottom to help you up and take your hand.

That's when you feel completely blind-sided.  Why leave in midair, when they could have told you they wanted to leave before you made the commitment to jump?  Why do things that sound like common sense, never seem very.. well... common?

There are a lot of things that make me question why we as humans trust, and trust, and trust again. Maybe deep down we're hoping there will be someone that decides the best way to keep you from falling, is to keep you from jumping in the first place.

But - until that day comes though, keep climbing, putting one step in front of the other.  If you fall, you always have that super big trampoline-type thing.  Hey, it's better than nothing, right?