Who can we trust anymore?

I just found out that the Green Hills YMCA locker room was robbed and ransacked this morning. Allegedly, a group of girls went in and robbed all unlocked lockers. They took car keys, valuables, clothes - everything. And apparently illegal debit card transactions have already been reported. I have tried to find a legit report on the news to link my post to, but I can't find anything... so this is completely an alleged story... but still. Like RealitySteve says about his Bachelor spoilers, my sources are pretty legit.

Trust. It is such a hard thing to do these days. To let people in, to be vulnerable, to open up. We live in a world of closed off people who live in fear, or don't and oftentimes reap the consequences. And it makes me wonder - is mistrust the exception or the rule? Are bad things bound to happen or rare to happen? Should women have to carry pepper spray to protect themselves walking to their car after 8pm in the mall, or are we just being "over-cautious." That is something my grandmother always used to say to me. When normally people say goodbye, she would simply say "Be cautious honey, be cautious." Completely her catch phrase, and as a kid, I used to always roll my eyes and think - what is living if you are always cautious? Bad things will not happen to me. But they can and they have, and I assume in the future at some point, they will. And maybe being cautious is not an overprotective cry, but rather a way to live.

It all makes me wonder - they say if you're not living your dying, take risks, walk on the wild side, let loose. And they also say "be careful, learn from other mistakes, make good choices." So how do we live a full life, and still live a long life? How do we find the balance, and who do we trust along the way?

I have come to find that we live in a world that unfortunately, on the whole, cannot be trusted. Ever since my sister's car was robbed, I hide my GPS and the stand and always put my purse in my trunk even if I am leaving my car just to pop into the grocery store. My friends laugh at me and think I am a little crazy, and sometimes I think they are right. And the crazy part is, for some reason I do that, but I trust the YMCA and I trust the ladies I see in the locker room every morning - and I leave my stuff in the lockers unlocked all the time. I am not sure if this is because I convince myself - well this is a Christian organization. People who steal cannot afford this membership - that just wouldn't happen. Which apparently means nothing in regards to the morals of its members and it is a naive way to be. I guess I simply figure, what are the odds someone would go into my duffle bag and steal my belongings. Well it turns out, the odds are pretty high. And when I think of all of the valuables - from car keys to my cell phone to my favorite David Yurman ring that I leave in my duffle bag, even I feel ashamed that I would not lock everything up. From now on I will. Lesson learned.

But I don't want to live in fear all the time. And don't you find that when faced with a decision, the easiest one is usually always the one that calls you to take a risk. I didn't want to bother to wait in line and get a locker key every morning, it is inconvenient, so I risked it. Or parking - which we all know gives me anxiety - in an unmarked area, or really everything you do in life. Everything is a choice and thus carries a consequence and a risk. Every choice moves your forward. Every choice shapes your life. I guess the real question is, do you trust your choices?

And as a side note: Dear crazy psychos out there who cheat, steal, lie, betray and make the rest of us paranoid and reserved: I resent you... correction. I will pray for you, because you have to be pretty desperate to selfishly turn a beautiful morning here in Nashville into a nightmare for those women just trying to get their fitness on. Seriously...?! Argh. Makes me so mad.