Recently, I happened to be suffocated in a conversation, for it was all talking and no listening. This incident reminded me of the adage:
“You have been given two ears and one mouth for a reason.”
Truth is bitter but being silent to those bitter things does not mean what is being said is true. It takes patience to understand the silence.
When you turn patient, probably you would listen to the words which you took for silence.
I found this note on listening from a book i was reading.
When I ask you to listen to me
And you start giving advice to me
You are not doing what I have asked.
When I ask you to listen to me
And you begin to tell me why
I should not feel that way
You are trampling on my feelings
When I ask you to listen to me
And you feel you have to do something
To solve my problem
You have failed me.
Strange as that may seem.
Listen! All I ask is that you Listen.
Don’t talk or do-just Listen
Advice is cheap;
And I can do by myself, I am not helpless.
When you do something that I can do
Or need to do for myself
You contribute to my fear and inadequacy.
But when you accept
That I feel what I feel,
No matter how irrational,
Then I can stop trying to convince
You and get about this business
Of understanding what’s behind the irrational feeling.
And when that’s clear, the answers are obvious and
I would not need advice.
Irrational feelings make sense when
We understand what’s behind them.
Perhaps that’s why prayers works for some people-
Because God is mute,
And he does not give advice or try to fix things.
God just listens and lets you work out things for yourself.
So please listen, and just hear me.
And if you want to talk, wait a minute
For you turn and I will listen to you.
-Stacia Glimer
