ROXANNE CONVERSE-WHITING

The 2018 Toyota Tacoma has a few more bells and whistles than Rhonda, the 2011 Honda that I drive. One feature the Tacoma has allows a radar to sense when the vehicle is approaching another vehicle too quickly while set on cruise control. It will automatically slow the vehicle to match the vehicle’s speed ahead of it. Getting used to trusting this feature took me a while. Particularly when driving at high speeds in traffic, I had to learn to trust that the truck would do what it was designed to do.

I was recently driving down new highways in places that I’ve never traveled. I had to trust the speed limits and signs posted.

Because I am from Nebraska, I am not used to driving on curvy, windy roads. At times, I had to trust that the road was engineered to handle the speeds indicated. The curves looked a little scary, but the reality was that I only needed to be concerned if I exceeded the speed of the signage. A 25-mph curve on a ramp is not meant to be driven at 40 mph. The signs can be trusted to be posted in my best interest.

Sometimes when barreling down life’s highway, I have had to learn how to trust. Trust the process. Trust that I will have what I need. Trust that things will work out as they are meant to. Trust that the preparation was adequate to produce the results I hope for.

However, I was once instructed by a snowmobile instructor that if I felt out of control, then I probably already was. It is important to also trust my instincts on the highway of life. Trust when I need to slow down and take a rest. Trust the feeling I get when something isn’t okay for me. Trust that I am strong enough to know when to say “no.” Trust myself to provide what I need, even when it is simply to ask for help.

Regardless of the roads I travel or the vehicles that take me there. The one thing I know to be true is that trust is my most important companion.