People are lonely because they build walls instead of bridges. – Unknown
The thought of someone being lonely makes me incredibly sad. I can’t imagine how absolutely horrible loneliness must feel. Being an only child, you’d think I’d have some idea of lonely, but pets, friends, and family (not necessarily in that order!) more than made up for a shortage of siblings.
The quote above certainly doesn’t apply to everyone who’s lonely. After all, the elderly often find themselves alone simply because they’ve had the “good fortune” of outliving their friends and spouse. If they don’t have compassionate, loving family members nearby, their days must be unbearably long.
This quote has another group of people in mind. Those who have bickered, nitpicked, stirred up trouble, and sought out strife most of their life. The crowd who no one seems to ever be able to do enough for. The ones who want “this person” to be at odds with “that person” and everyone to hate the other one. After all, what better way to rise above the crowd than to have everyone hating one another. Right? Wrong.
Without realizing it, they’re putting up walls – closing everybody out, while shutting themselves inside, alone. It doesn’t take long before they find themselves so lonely that the things that once bothered them about these other people now seem so incredibly trivial. They wonder why they didn’t have sense enough to realize that the people in our lives are our greatest treasures. Houses, cars, boats, purses, jewelry, furniture – none of that matters. Not one of them hugs back or laughs at your jokes. I’ve never had one greet me at the back door when I’ve been away and tell me they’d just put a cup of coffee on. Not even my favorite purse.
We can all agree that the people in our lives are everything to us. But do we treat them that way? Do we try to foster harmony and happiness – with fat doses of humor thrown in? Do we put our own needs AFTER theirs? Do we tell them every chance we get that we love them so much it makes our head swim?
If you think you have so much as one wall in your life – tear it down today. It’d make a perfect spot for a bridge, don’t you think?
