If you live for people’s acceptance, you will die from their rejection – Lecrae

I noticed it last week. On a Thursday morning in the office. It was unmistakable. There was a shift, a chill. The chatter in the tea room quietened at my approach and colleagues averted their gaze. I then noticed that two had withdrawn their online connections with me.

Online ‘friend’ status is in itself a complicated arrangement, I remind myself, as I sit at my desk and the social media lists confirm the ‘unfriending.’ Everyone has the right to change their minds, I intellectualise. Rationally I know that the borders between work and leisure are contested, that they are fluid and unpredictable. I ought not to be upset, I remind myself.

And yet I am.

I approach one person to ask if I have offended them. “No, not at all,” comes the reply. I note that it…