I've been collecting observations about listening this week. I've been doing more listening this week.
It is a powerful action to listen to others, to another person. In fact, there may not be much that could be more sacred. Listening creates the space for another to actually tell something, something important about them. We don't often stop long enough to do this great service for another person. But, everyone has a story...one that needs to be told, if not for the sake of the one listening, then for the one telling. Our lives take shape through words, through telling our story. Sometimes words aren't needed, but often not indefinitely. Because a good story needs to be told, it needs to be heard. The need for communication is the bond of our humanity. It creates the mortar needed to build the substance of good life.
I listened to lot of good stories this week. Stories of people I hadn't met before, stories of people that I live around and now know better. People now that I love more...because of what they told me. I also learned more about myself because of what I learned about others. I know how we are connected, in deeper ways. I know how to identify with them more, to view them as more alike than different from me. All because I took the time to listen to them.
A group of young people attended a conference this week, a conference where great stories were told, where great thoughts were shared, where stretching experiences were participated in, where people profoundly worshiped together. I was struck by the range and depth of what people carry around within them. By the importance of sharing these things with others. By the ways a person is expanded through deep, rich, and good experiences with other people. By the telling. By the listening.
It is a privilege to listen.
