Trust

Is it a strength or is it a weakness?  Maybe it is both.  Does it take strength to trust people?...to give people the benefit of the doubt, to see good in people and believe that most people are good?  Or is it a weakness that allows others to take advantage of you?  All I know right now is that trusting people is part of my nature.  People are good until they prove otherwise.  That is how my brain and my heart work.  And as I evaluate pieces of my life, because that is what you do when you deal with big changes in your life, I've thought a lot about my trusting nature.  I'm not putting myself down for being trusting.  I'm just being honest with myself.  I'm becoming more aware of the position it puts me in with others.  I  feel for me, my trusting nature is both a strength and a weakness and it's time for me to learn how to help it become more of a strength than a weakness in my life.  Now to figure out how to do that is the trickier part.  I have a strong feeling it has to do with the core group of friends in my life.  The ones you choose to walk along side you in life and help you open your eyes and see things in a different way.  And that excites me and scares me at the same time.  Because it's hard to have your eyes open when it feels they have been slightly closed for a while.  But I'm ready!