A sheltered life is not lived as an example.
It is lived as an echo.
Aimless screaming noise unleashed into the empty void unchallenged.
Absorbed by no one, hitting the wall and returning unchanged.
Repeating and reverberating and received as false evidence of resounding agreement.
Sheltered is a deceptive sense of security that ventures nothing. It buries our talents in the ground and hides our light to avoid detection.
Sheltered is shackled to the "shall nots." A self serving state of survival that seeks avoidance over intimacy.
Apathy over action.
Excuses over engagement.
Go. Give. Do. Be.
All of them commands to encounter "the other." Personally. Not through platforms or posturing. But proximity.
Close enough to hear the voiceless.
To see them.
To know them.
To be known by them.
By our love.
A sheltered life is not a life.
It is entombing ourselves before we die.
Buried alive by fear in a crypt of our own creation. Enduring what remains rather than living.
Truly living the rest of what's in store for us. That which will continue long after we are gone if only we choose to live a life and lead not by our empty words. But by our example.