I recently came across (again) something Socrates said:

“Sometimes you put walls up not to keep people out, but to see who cares enough to break them down.”

What happens when you find that no one makes the effort to break the walls down? What does that mean? It makes me wonder how many times I have passed through life without noticing that someone was holed up within a fortress they had created. Did I pass idly by, consumed by my own existence?

Most days I wonder if I’ve been a very good friend to the people around me. In recent years I’ve begun to think that I have not. My tendency is to be pretty self-centered. This doesn’t bode well for the people around me that are waiting to see if anyone will care enough to scale the walls.

Stop and look around. Who has pulled away? Who seems distant? Who is crying out of their silence?