Within the Walls Where We Live… and Work… and Walk

Sometimes in the give and take of life we find reason for much misunderstanding, and for anger and annoyance at others⎯and they at us. And such situations frequently lead to feelings of acute offense, and the closing up of hearts, and cutting others off, and avoiding other people as much as possible⎯even to the point of not speaking⎯both in public and in private places.

It happens with children. Children have been known to walk to the other side of the street to avoid speaking to a playmate, or to pretend not to see someone. And others of us, it seems, are sometimes simply children⎯a little more grown, but not always acting as if we were. Sometimes we may know full well that others have seen us, and that we have seen them, and still go through the process of a kind of pretense that is unsatisfying and insincere.

Sometimes even members of the same household walk in and out without greetings, without welcome, and live sometimes at length in sulking silence.

Misunderstandings within the walls where we live, or within the walls where we work, or on the streets where we walk, make the pattern of living tense and trying⎯for we never feel the need to ignore another person without placing some penalty upon ourselves. The fact is that we narrow our own world, we narrow the limits of our own lives if there is anyone we feel we must avoid, if there is anyone concerning whom we have unsettled feelings of offense.

On this subject we take a sentence from our Saviour: “Therefore if thou…rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee;…first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.” Smoldering resentments, and unsettled offenses, unsettled slights and quarrels, all tend to narrow and cramp the lives we live, and to shrivel us inside.

Literally, we can poison ourselves with resentment and pretense. And in order to be at ease and to have peace inside ourselves, we have to open our hearts, and clear up misunderstandings, and feel free of offense of toward those with whom we live our lives⎯and as we do, a load will be lifted, and our world will be widened, and we shall be relieved of the tension of pretense⎯and have a blessed feeling of freedom among our fellow men.