A quiet home can hold a rich life that visitors only glimpse briefly.

What a visitor sees is an hour of a life, arranged for company. The reading, the letters, the long-running project, the particular way someone spends a Sunday morning are not on display, and a house that looks uneventful from the doorway may be the site of a great deal. Fullness and visibility are not the same thing.

Be slower to conclude that someone’s life is small because it is quiet. Ask what they have been reading, making or thinking about lately. And if it is your own home that others assume is empty, you do not owe anyone a tour of what it actually contains.