…fear makes strangers of people who should be friends.
—Shirley MacLaine…
Life is sterile and stifled when we close
ourselves off from the smiles or swift glances of others. The opportunities we have for personal Contacts are not mere chance. We draw to ourselves experiences and thus acquaintances which will lend meaning to our lives.Our fear of others is generally tied to our sense of personal inadequacy. How frequent are our suspicions that others are smarter, more capable, destined for greater success.
However, we fail to gain the growth promised by another’s presence in our lives when we give in to the fears that haunt us all at times. Those strangers in our lives are not without purpose. Their growth, as well as our own, is dependent on the removal of the barriers separating us. A stranger lingering in my life is not here by chance. I will gain from opening myself.