Dear Trent

Dear Yung Trent of May 2024,

This is you from the future, on the other side of the summer. Something’s about to happen that’s going to change your life forever. You’re about to come forward and choose to take the drastic risk of being honest regardless of consequence. You’re going to do your best to minimize the collateral damage and the fallout effects, but it’s not going to go the way you expect. Let me say that again: it’s not going to go the way you expect. But, here’s my wish for you. My wish for you is simply to have faith. To trust. To be unceasingly honest & true. As tempting as it’s going to be to revert to your old ways of being deceitful & leaning on half-truths. I want you to trust the beauty that follows full honesty. It’s going to be painful at times. It’s going to really hurt. But I promise you, I promise you, I promise you, you’ll make it through. There will be some moments where it feels like your heart was ripped out of your chest and sliced raw into little sashimi pieces. There will be times that your mind will give you every reason to give up on the mission and abandon ship. But you must, you must, you must see through this voyage. It’s an epic journey. And it’s the only way to true self-discovery. What waits on the other side of the unrelenting honesty is the coming into full contact with the evidence of your Wholeness. You’ll see for yourself that, despite all of the things you’ve done that you’re utterly ashamed of, there’s a plane that exists beyond that, where the only response is love. Even when it doesn’t feel like it, I want you to always remember one thing: this is a story of forgiveness. Full stop. The End. Even when you’re raging, utterly raging at the injustice of it all, I want you to remember this inevitable outcome and then adjust your actions. Don’t be tempted by the quick fix when you know it’s an eternal pursuit of embracing Wholeness. You know when you’re acting from a place of love. You know when your intentions are aligned & pure. You know the difference because you can feel it. So don’t stress over the challenges & the struggle & the tears that are about to occur. Don’t fight the pain that is about to come your way. Remember that pain x resistance = suffering. When it comes to the left side of that equation, you can often only control your level of “resistance”, so when the pain feels unbearable and you’re not in a position to change the situation, then it’s time to shift the mindset. It’s time to drop in and embrace it. For as long as you don’t, for as long as you sit on the side of the stream, just wishing things were different, you’ll be resisting the Reality that’s actually here and you’ll live out your precious days in suffering. Whenever you’re searching for guidance, please know that your best friend is Presence. Drop into what’s here now. Be with the emotions that surface. Let them rise. Embrace them. Feel them. Listen to what they have to say. Then choose whether acting on them is aligned with what’s honest. It’s one thing to feel an emotion, it’s a whole other thing to act on it. My wish for you is that you feel everything and act on the ones that inspire love. If the action you’re debating is rooted in fear, then take a pause, take a breath, and just let the wave roll over. Just embrace the emotion. Just take the pain. Just sit with what’s there. And just stay sitting. You don’t need to run. You don’t need to move. You don’t need to do anything at all. This I can promise you. This is to tap into your superpower of patience. If an action doesn’t feel aligned yet, then it’s not “wrong” to keep waiting. Wait for the felt sense of the “Whole Body YES.” You’ll know when that comes. Trust me. You can feel it. When it does, don’t ignore it. Go full send! When you hear your inner voice calling you forward, drop in and listen. These will become your marching orders. As strange as they may seem, no matter how weird in the moment, my wish for you is that you find the courage to listen. This voice deep inside you will never lead you astray. As painful as the short-term results may be, please don’t be afraid. The pain, as well as the fear, will only be temporary. The picture will become clearer the more honest actions you stack together. As you continue forward on this path of what’s true for the deepest part of you, you’ll be amazed at the seemingly random dance of the Universe working for you. As you live aligned with your True Self, as you take honest action in service of your true direction, then the Universe will conspire to help you. The Universe will have your back. As crazy as that seems, I absolutely, positively promise you that. When something feels a bit off or you’re not getting what you think you want, I’d encourage you to ask the question: “Am I being fully honest? Or is there something I’m ignoring? An emotion I’m denying? A truth that I’m hiding? Is there something deep-down that I simply can’t bear to speak into the Universe?” Because, as long as you hold back like this, you won’t get the joys of living in full alignment. You’re essentially telling the Universe (and thus your True Self) that it just can’t be fully trusted. “I can give you 99% honesty… but I can’t give you all of it.” Why? Why are you tempted to hold back? Is there something that the Universe has done to you that gives you evidence to counter that it has your back? Have you ever tried operating from a place of full trust, like full-frontal honesty, the bare naked truth? If you haven’t tested it out yet, then how can you conclude the experiment? Well, here’s the GoodNews: you’re about to test it out this summer. Here’s the BadNews: you’re not gonna get the results you anticipated. But here’s the GoodNews: they’ll be way better than you ever expected. But here’s the BadNews: until you realize that they are, you’re gonna feel a lot of suffering, rooted in your own resistance. But here’s the GoodNews: you’ll eventually work through this. But here’s the BadNews: all of your relationships won’t share the same sentiment. But here’s the GoodNews: life is long, so you don’t need to rush it. But here’s the BadNews: life is short, so never cease to love & trust. And here’s the GoodNews, the reminder I want you to remember from this very beginning: this is a story of forgiveness. And love stays forever winning.

See you on the other side. Best of luck on your journey. And oh! One final reminder: enjoy the little things. At the end of the day, life is just a series of moments. So just practice the art of learning to enjoy them.

Bon voyage, Yung Trent!

Don’t worry,

T. Happy