Trust in a romantic relationship is even funnier. For me, I trust slowly. In the beginning, I tend to believe everything is crap unless proven otherwise. I look for holes in the armor. I look for reasons not to trust. But eventually, at some mystical point, a man magically proves himself to me. And then there is trust. At that point, once upon a time, there used to always be trust forever after. Unless there was some pretty hard black and white proof that there shouldn’t be. It used to be that from that point of trust, I would simply choose to believe what that man told me. Even if it didn’t always make sense. Even if I wasn’t always sure. Because he was my partner and I trusted him.
This last decade brought me two divorces and more heartbreak than I ever thought possible. So today I welcome a new one. A new decade in time. Even though it’s not a round decade in age for me, it still feels like something big. Some big passage of time. Possibly more because of all that happened than anything else. In the past ten years I divorced two husbands, moved five times, met and banished my very own Mr. Big, loved four cats and lost three, and found what I imagine to be my life’s partner. That’s a big ten years.
Ten years ago today I was married to my first husband. We’d just spent a New Years Eve doing something I honestly don’t even remember. The only thing I do remember about it was that we were living with my father and when we woke up ten years and one day ago, we were watching the year 2000 ring in across the country and realizing there was no Y2K madness to be afraid of. Today I’m in a very different place. I’m divorced from him and someone else. I don’t speak to my father anymore. I am on my own and making a lot more money. And I have LC and this great apartment with him.
Trust is…. well, weird. It’s fragile. It’s easily destroyed. And yet it is the cornerstone of most relationships we have. That seems an awfully weighty job for something that breaks so easily. But then, trust is also up for individual interpretation. Some people trust easily and trust long. Some people never learn to trust. And some people switch between trusting and not trusting when a butterfly flaps its wings in China. Or something. And pretty much everything in between too. Once I had a friend who I was just getting to know. They told me something important and confidential. I meant to help, sure. But the bottom line was that I blabbed. And to a very unfortunate person. Trust was lost. The friendship never really developed after that. Maybe because I broke the trust. Or maybe because I couldn’t let go of the fact that I did it. Maybe because I was overly sensitive of trust issues and just tanked the whole thing. Trust is just funny like that.
Today, I look forward to ten more. Maybe I’ll get married, maybe I’ll have kids. Maybe I won’t. I intend to drink a lot of good wine, eat a lot of great food, enjoy the company of the best friends I’ve ever known, and be happy. I am determined that my life has turned around and I’m going to keep it and me on track. I stopped doing resolutions a long time ago. I resolve not to resolve. It’s a good plan as I always manage to meet my goal. I hope for a lot though. And I hope not to lose hope. I hope for the best.