Map App & the Frequency of Trust

All of us know what a map is, of course.  And all of us have employed a map to move us from point A to point B at some time in our journey.  Some of us know map as an atlas, a bound book with tattered corners and random coloring on the pages inside, inevitably shoved into a back seat pocket or lying lazily on the floor under the seat in a car.  Some of know map as an app on our phone, an effortless passageway to our next destination by way of a conversation with our phone’s built in personal assistant.  Either way, the map, as a tool, was created to offer us a path forward to our next destination.  Whether our next destination is so easily ascertained is a story for a different day. 

It’s hard to pinpoint exactly when the map became a devotee of swiftness and efficiency, but the maps of today place high priority on not “wasting” time.  The voices of our map are continuously dispensing new routes, proclaiming they will “save” us some number of precious minutes.  And we listen to the voices of our map intently, maneuvering this way and that, with unwavering trust in said voice.  Trust, which is perhaps more readily bestowed, given the way of the map is nearly always a linear path.  A direct path we can make sense of.  A direct path we can understand.  Though possibly, not the path we need. 

It is less complicated, perhaps not uncomplicated, but unquestionably less complicated, to trust the linear.  Maybe because the linear breathes in the known…and we are comfortable in the known.  Maybe because the linear imitates predictability…and we conflate predictability with the ability to control.  Maybe because the linear masquerades as flow…and we want or need to believe flow is linear.   Maybe because the linear feels more aligned with perfection…and we feel safer striving for perfection given its elevated status in our world.  So, we trust the route guidance of a map implicitly, assuming its directions are correct at every turn.  No inquisition.  Blind faith. 

What if we shifted our unconditional trust in the voice of something outside of ourselves to unconditional trust in the voice of ourselves?  What if we extended absolute trust to our own soul, to our own intuition?  What if we offered infinite trust to the non-linear, the unknown, the improbable, the imperfection?  What might the world look like? 

And the thing is, it is within our power to experience that world.  Because if we can dispel doubt in relation to an app on our phone, we can most certainly dispel doubt in relation to our intuition.  We get (yes, get) to make a choice of trust in ourselves, each moment of each day.  And yes, it is a choice.  And yes, it is completely normal to make a choice anchored in doubt, rather than trust.  We all choose, at one time or another, to fight, to resist, our own inner route guidance system.  We all do it.  It happens.  In this happening, we are gifted a beautiful touch point – we can see our doubt, thank our doubt, and forgive our doubt. In this happening, we are granted the chance to expand the relationship with our doubt, the ever-present, ever-changing relationship with our doubt.  In this happening, we can clear doubt, sending slivers of doubt on their way for transformation, making room for confidence.  Maybe a confidence as bold as what we place in voice of a map which tells us when to turn, when to change lanes, all while driving a car at high rates of speed, amongst other cars traveling at high rates of speed? 

This kind of confidence nurtures trust.  This kind of trust cultivates confidence.  May we trust this bold confidence.  May we be confident in this resolute trust.  In this spiral of trust and confidence may we flow free.