If a friend stops making jokes, notice. People rarely announce when they’re struggling.
REFLECTION
WHAT THIS MEANS
Trouble tends to show up as a subtraction rather than an announcement. The thing you notice is not a new behaviour but an old one gone quiet: the jokes, the messages, the showing up to things they used to show up to. Almost nobody says it directly, partly because saying it makes it real.
If somebody you like has gone a bit flat, you do not need the right words. Sitting next to them, or a message saying you noticed they have been quiet and you are around, is enough of an opening. Leave the door open rather than pushing it, and ask again in a week.
A QUESTION TO SIT WITH
Which friend has gone quieter than usual lately?
MORE IN PERCEPTION & ATTENTION
- A delayed flight with no Wi-Fi is a rare chance to stare out a window and think. Take it.
- The fitting room mirror, the bathroom mirror and the car mirror all disagree about you. None of them gets a vote.
- You’ll pick your friend’s laugh out of a noisy cafeteria instantly. Your ears already know who matters.
Free, with nothing to buy inside it.