Trusting others can be hard to do and is a topic quite often discussed. Trusting others is about solid relationships, and sometimes a relationship with someone can be complex.

How do we know if trusting others far too much may haunt us later?

Knowing that it is okay or will be fine when trusting others, simply means you will realize how to relate to that particular person by knowing yourself to the core.

I'd recently written about a woman from Croatia, named Nakita, from out of the blue, writing me letters while I was in prison, and offering me an invitation to join in on a worldwide mindfulness meditation for world peace.

I was having a problem trusting her.

Considering I 'd never met her before how could I have any sort of relationship trust?

Two or three days went by, and now the haunting voices in my head were calling me a "nut," louder than ever before, for falling for such a seeming prank. "That's all it could be," I would try to convince myself.

Some sort of prank to play or tease around with prisoners. I also started thinking, "Why am I being so hard on myself? My intent is good."

I quickly sided with the fact that my ego was raising a fuss over the matter. Why be defensive?

No attack was involved.

I thought about the issue of trust in any relationship being focused on whether I trust myself enough to ever begin trusting others. I decided to take the pressure off myself and just have fun with the entire idea.

What could it harm if true joy within myself would be the worst outcome of participating in the mindfulness meditation?

Surprisingly, right at that time I received a letter from my old acim  friend William, who had been released and was now enjoying his freedom with his two sons, who are both close to my age.

At eighty-one years old, William was sharp as a tack. He had spent two and a half years in prison for a nonviolent offense so minor that it should never have incurred a prison sentence.

The State of Ohio's tough-on-crime stance, which garners it much money from the federal government, is a "hard rock to bust." Don't get me wrong; I've bunked next to many who certainly need to be in prison.

Readiness to trust

The point is that it can make for tragic miscarriages of justice when a prison identification number only represents the sound of "ka-ching." This is the subject matter for a future article or perhaps a book.

Getting back to the subject at hand-- William was the only other prisoner with whom I had ever shared any type of Divine Thoughts. And I had held back, even with William, on conversing about A Course in Miracles.

I had just never seemed to have the right amount of readiness to trust and share what I 'd learned. I needed more time, I thought. A Course in Miracles is not intended as some sort of recruitment device.

We all know the esoteric nature of ACIM is an important aspect in realizing mindfulness and must be respected.

His curiosity revealed

After filling me in on his health, his news, and other small talk, William's letter asked a question that raised my eyebrows a bit.

He went on to say that when he was in prison, he often noticed me lying on my top bunk with my face glued to a big blue book with gold lettering.

Of course William was referring to A Course in Miracles.

He went on to say that he 'd noticed I seemed to be protective and quite private over the book and never discussed it with anyone. He also noticed the consistent hours on end I was enthusiastically writing.

He added that while he was in prison, something inside him suggested he not ask me, and that if I was ready and ever willing to trust and share it with him, then he trusted that I would.

Now he was asking me to fill him in on what I had been so involved with.

If I should write William a detailed letter explaining my devotion as a student of the Course, I immediately began asking myself. What would I say in a letter?

I did not feel comfortable having to explain myself and my knowledge, along with my experience, through the mail. Because she had been a student for some time, it was different with my communication with Nakita.

Now I began contemplating sending William an invitation for the Worldwide Mindfulness Meditation event. We 'd certainly known of one another's strengths, boundaries, and limits.

I 'd grown to learn that knowing who I am and what I'm inwardly about, meant I could trust in myself about it being okay to send the invitation to William.