Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Listening


If I am a good listener, I don't interrupt the other or plan my own next speech while pretending to be listening.  I try to hear what is said, but I listen just as hard for what is not said and for what is said between the lines.  I am not in a hurry, for there is no pre-appointed destination for the conversation.  There is no need to get there, for we are already here; and in this present I am able to be fully present to the one who speaks.  The speaker is not an object of be categorized or manipulated, but a subject whose life situation is enough like my own that I can understand it in spite of the differences between us.  If I am a good listener, what we have in common will be more important than what we have in conflict.

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