When Open Hearts Wander in a Closed World
An Appalachian Sage Reflection by Hannah Cedars
In today’s distant, fast-paced world, many people feel lonely, disconnected, or unsure where to find real friendships. This Appalachian Sage reflection speaks to the quiet ache of losing family, drifting from old friends, and still believing destiny brings matching souls together when the time is right.
There was a time when folks talked with their hearts wide open, when you could wander over to a neighbor’s porch and sit a spell without feeling like you were interrupting. Back then, people didn’t worry about saying too much or feeling too deeply. Conversations moved the way creek water does—easy, natural, full of life—and you walked away lighter than when you arrived.
But time has a way of changing people. Somewhere between the busyness, the losses, and the quiet heartbreaks that accumulate with age, folks started closing their hearts like front doors in winter. Even the warm ones, the storytellers, the porch-talkers, began guarding themselves out of fear of being judged, misunderstood, or simply ignored. And if we’re honest, that shift hurts more than we like to admit.
There’s a special kind of loneliness that sneaks up on you when you look around and realize the people you once leaned on aren’t in your life anymore. Friends drift away, families fracture, and those who promised to stay sometimes vanish like smoke. Life pulls everyone in different directions, and one morning you wake up and feel the silence in your bones.
And here’s the quiet truth: losing friends is one thing, but losing family—the people who should love you best—is its own kind of grief. It feels like standing in a room full of people but talking into thin air, and in those moments, we sometimes feel we are living in a closed world, one where the doors of connection have quietly shut without our consent. You can go years carrying stories in your chest with nobody to tell them to.
And as you get older, your circle shrinks. People pass on, or they turn inward, or they become busy with their own storms. The world grows quieter, but not in a peaceful way—in a lonely, hollow way that makes you wonder if there’s anybody out there who speaks your language anymore. You catch yourself thinking, “Where are the souls who feel deeply? Where are the ones who still talk with their hearts? Does anyone connect anymore?” The silence answers, but it doesn’t soothe.
But here’s the part loneliness never tells you: matching souls don’t disappear. They don’t fade out. They simply take the long road to reach you. Somewhere out there are people whose hearts move like yours—slow, warm, honest, colorful. They may not be in your life yet. They may not live next door. In fact, they may not arrive today or tomorrow. But destiny has a way of placing people exactly where they’re needed, at the exact right moment. Not a moment too soon, and never a moment late.
And if you’re watching for an open, kind soul to welcome into your life—just a good-natured friend to talk with, laugh with, or simply sit beside—remember this: the very first glimpse of a gentle spirit is almost always a smile. Not a polite, forced smile… but one of those bright, unstingy smiles that explodes across someone’s face before you even have time to say, “Hello.” A smile like that is the heart saying, “I’m safe. I’m glad you’re here.” It’s the kind of smile that doesn’t ask anything of you—it just offers.
Those are the people worth slowing down for.
The truth is, the world hasn’t run out of good souls. It’s just running low on people brave enough to stay open. And if you are one of the rare ones who still speaks with feeling, who still hopes, who still notices the small beauties in life, then you are not “too much”—you are a lantern. Remember this, lanterns don’t dim themselves because the night is dark. Lanterns shine because the night is dark. You, my dear open soul, you are the lantern in the darkness…..SHINE..…
Stay open, even when others close. Stay tender, even when life grows hard. Stay warm, even when the world feels cold. Because somewhere along the winding roads of this life—maybe soon, maybe later—someone with a heart that matches yours will find their way to you. And when they do, all the years of loneliness will make sense, because destiny never loses track of the souls that belong in your life. It only waits for the right time to bring them home.
— Written with love by Hannah Cedars
The Appalachian Sage
🌿 A Soft Word for You, Reader…
Here’s to you, dear soul —
the one who still feels deeply in a world that keeps trying to go numb.
Here’s to the open-hearted.
To the ones who bruise easily but love anyway.
To those who’ve been disappointed and still offer kindness.
To the souls who stay tender, even after life has scraped them raw.
Open-hearted people live life twice —
once when they walk through it,
and again when they sit with the memory and let it soften into wisdom.
Pain writes through you.
Joy writes through you.
And your openness is not a weakness — it is your gift,
your compass,
your lantern in the dark.
So if life has felt lonely lately…
if the world seems closed off, hurried, or disconnected…
hold on to the truth of who you are.
Lanterns don’t dim themselves just because the night is dark.
You are meant to shine —
not for applause,
not for attention,
but because the world needs the kind of heart that still feels.
Here’s to you, my fellow traveler.
May you stay open.
May you stay soft.
And may every road that was closed to you finally open in your favor.
With a lanterns’ light,
Hannah Cedars
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Even the U.S. Surgeon General has spoken openly about the growing crisis of loneliness in our modern world. (Click link on US Surgeon General)