In my late 20s something activated in my mind where I inverted my woes - that everyone else is fighting a far more exhausting personal war than I am. I don't ha

In my late 20s something activated in my mind where I inverted my woes - that everyone else is fighting a far more exhausting personal war than I am. I don't have the energy to help everyone with their war, but I can respect that the people who are giving their energy to me might not even have it for themselves. I feel like since then my relationships have been deeper, more genuine, often more challenging. I also have to gauge which are worth holding on to - I cull my social garden now, instead of growing it. Someone said every person is a private universe. You're listening to someone talk and you don't see that universe. Each pause, each sigh, a litany of experience, an era of mistakes. Life is very short. You can make it to the end and be caught off guard because you were still waiting for it to begin. It can be worth the exhausting questions from time to time - a followup of 'really?' to asking how someone's weekend went can take you off a highway of nothings and onto a forest trail of adventure.