Of broken trust and giving up

May I share with you this story from one of my most treasured books, Like the Flowing River by Paulo Coelho:

Charity Under Threat

Some time ago, my wife went to the aid of a Swiss tourist in Ipanema, who claimed he had been robbed by some street children. Speaking appalling Portuguese in a thick foreign accent, he said that he had been left without his passport, without any money, and with nowhere to sleep.

My wife bought him lunch, gave him enough cash to pay for a hotel room for the night while he got in touch with his embassy, and then left. Days later, a Rio newspaper reported that this 'Swiss tourist' was, in fact, an inventive con-artist who put on an accent and abused the good faith of those of us who love Rio and want to undo the negative image - justified or not - that has become our postcard.

When she read the article, my wife simply said: 'Well, that's not going to stop me helping anyone.'

Her remark reminded me of the story of a wise man who moved to the city of Akbar. No one took much notice of him, and his teachings were not taken up by the populace. After a time, he became the object of their mockery and their ironic comments.

One day, while he was walking down the main street in Akbar, a group of men and women began insulting him. Instead of pretending he had not noticed, the wise man turned to them and blessed them.

One of the men said:

'Are you deaf too? We call you the foulest of names and yet you respond with sweet words!'

'We can each of us only offer what we have,' came the wise man's reply.

~o~o~o~

One of the things that deeply hurts is a broken trust. It hurts to the point that it could even be traumatic, especially when it not only happened once, but more than twice or thrice. It makes you want to just give up altogether.

But why should we give up the fight? It would just make the bad people prevail in this world. The lost of trust in mankind is what makes us live in disharmony, because we are afraid to be outwitted by the other.

But if we let this fear take over us, we will never find peace. The heart's function is to love, and when the heart gets broken and we keep it like that it would never heal up and fulfil what is was made for. It is just like driving: when you get into an accident because of another person's fault, should you let it scare you and stop you from driving anymore? No. Otherwise, you will end up totally losing confidence on yourself and forgetting how to drive.

It is not easy to do this, I know. For it is but natural that our defenses would go up when we get hurt. But then again, it does not mean we should let it shut us out from love. We learn from mistakes from facing it instead of running away from it. It is the way for us to be better equipped, to be stronger and wiser than before. Of course, it is no guarantee that we would never get hurt anymore. There is always a risk involved. But then again, I do believe that the heart is strong. As long as we keep it beating, it will one day finally find the one true soul that it lives in search for.

And it will be all worth it.

I pray and thank God for the good people in this world who remain with unfaltered spirits amidst all the hardships encountered.

Blessed be those who are lost, may they realize that the way for their selves to become whole is not by breaking others.