Say It Again and Again and ...

This isn't much of a listening culture. I would guess that some of
our aloneness has stirred us to talk... and to be listened to.
Listening is an act of dignifying, honoring, caring, respecting. But
there's not a lot of it going around. It is a discipline to listen
to another, to really stay engaged and not think about our response
before they finish their thought. It isn't hard to identify the
hunger to be heard. When you come across someone dying to be
listened to you might encounter this:
-they talk fast, afraid of not being able to finish
-they say it again and again. Repetition means I don't feel heard
yet. So I keep saying it and saying it and ...
-they get loud. Seems like we feel that the only way we can be heard
is to talk loud.

We do seem to be hard of hearing! But that is less a health problem
than a heart problem. The people we most need to listen to share the
same space with us. But those can be those we are less attuned. It
is hard work. But it is one more way to change the world, one person
and one neighborhood at a time.