Happiness is breaking down walls

Being humans, we are compelled to build.

When you see modern monuments of engineering you can’t help but compare to timeless structures that stand the test of time. Positive and negative connotations can be attributed to these structures we create. You see the Statue of Liberty, the Eiffel Tower, the Leaning tower of Pisa, the pyramids of Egypt, Mexico and Chile and you see how amazing our ingenuity can be, especially when you compare to modern skyscrapers.

Within these structures, there are walls that have marked world history, think the Great Wall of China and the Berlin Wall. There are three main differences between these two walls: one is still standing, one was built to divide and prevent defection while the other was built to protect.

These walls had purpose and meaning. They were also created one brick at a time. They took time to build. This didn’t happen over night.

We humans can’t help but obey our nature and there is often an intrinsic need embedded into us to create walls... except that some of these walls aren’t always physical.

As children, we are ingenuous, honest and fearless. As we live, we gain experiences, knowledge and become well acquainted with pain of all types while acquiring wisdom and fear. By the time we’re adults, we quite often have built strong walls of all sizes to keep different people at bay because we fear allowing people to know some parts of our true self.

Emotional walls are also built one brick at a time. One thought swallowed, one reaction kept to oneself, one emotion edited at a time. One push through silence, through verbal outbursts or even in physical form.

In our lives, we build walls because it’s quite possibly engrained in our DNA. Still, sometimes we have to go against our nature to become better people even if it is done one step at a time. That’s the thing, these walls were made one brick at a time and although the desire to tear them down in one fell swoop is there, sometimes we need a little patience, a lot of love and the desire to give thanks to bricks we put up and served their purpose.

Being humans, we are compelled to build. It’s just that sometimes we need to break down walls to build something greater and express our inner light.