one in which confidence is placed

Trust:  Assured reliance on the character, ability, strength, or truth of someone or something.

I sat beside a woman in a meeting last week who I’ve seen before many times. She is usually in her clothes from work, having come straight from there, although without the characteristic heaviness one seems weighted with at the close of business. It’s made me wonder in what industry she works — a happy feather factory, perhaps. Maybe she tests the newest innovations in comfortable bedding or conducts demonstrations on how to recline and relax. Or maybe she is a mystery shopper at local spas. Somehow, she emanates serenity after working a full day.

So there I was, sitting next to her, benefitting from the overflow of calm spilling out around her, evidenced by the easy smile on her face. And it’s genuine too. There are those who try to appear calm and/ or content. But the easy smile is too long held and starting to harden with a plastic sheen. You know the type. Not her. This woman is actually serene. She knows something I don’t know. So I pay attention when she speaks.

She talked about how she wanted to and tried to scientifically, quantitatively define God. She read all about physics and the cosmos — I can relate because me too. Reading Stephen Hawking fascinated me and gave me a headache. I sensed in him an understanding that far surpassed the limitations of language. It was one of my first recognitions of the impossibility of words, their inadequacy in the face of so enormous a truth, so enormous a feeling.

And like me, she never figured it out, but the idea of Him, Her, It not existing at all seemed unlikely. And scary. Because really.

Then she made the analogy that neither can love — a universally recognized and readily accepted power and force — be scientifically, quantitatively measured or defined. Some say it’s a chemical reaction. But reverence is not a chemical reaction. Nor is hope. We are not soulless. So whatever it is that is referred to as love, it just is. How do you know? You just know. And so it is with Him, Her, It.

Maybe this is elementary. But the simplest, most complete, most obvious truths are often the most recondite.