Listen | Filed under General
Hi there and welcome once again, just for today, I’ll trust that life knows what
it’s doing. Thanks so much for being here with me, and thank you in advance for
the contributions that you’ll make today in the corner of the world in which you
live and where you have influence and input.You might want to gather up close
and pay attention for what I am about to discuss is something we can all gain from.
So Listen Up….
The key to the art of listening is selectivity. You stand guard at the ear-gateway to your mind, heart and spirit. You decide what you will accept. . .
Listen to the good. Tune your ears to love, hope and courage. Tune out gossip, fear and resentment.
Listen to the beautiful. Relax to the music of the masters; listen to the symphony of nature — the hum of the wind in the treetops, bird songs, thundering surf.
Listen with your eyes. Imaginatively listen to the sounds in a poem, a novel, a picture.
Listen critically. Mentally challenge assertions, ideas, philosophies. Seek the truth with an open mind.
Listen with patience. Do not hurry other people. Show them the courtesy of listening to what they have to say, no matter how much you disagree. You may learn something.
Listen with your heart. Practice empathy when you listen; put yourself in the other person’s place and try to hear his or her problems in your heart.
Listen for growth. Be an inquisitive listener. Ask questions. Everyone has something to say that will help you to grow.
Listen creatively. Listen carefully for ideas or the germs of ideas. Listen for hints or clues that will spark creative projects.
Listen to yourself. Listen to your deepest yearnings, your highest aspirations, your noblest impulses. Listen to the better person within you.
Listen with depth. Be still and meditate. Listen with the ear of intuition for the inspiration of the Infinite.
Along the same lines written by a physician here is something very special…..
A Poem About Listening
Please, just listen. When I ask you to listen to me, and you start giving advice, you have not done what I asked. When I ask you to listen to me and you begin to tell me why I shouldn’t 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 asked was that you listen, not talk, or do… just hear. Advice is cheap: twenty-five cents will get you both dear Abby and Billy Graham in the same newspaper, and I can do that myself. I’m not helpless. Maybe discouraged and faltering, but not helpless. When you do something for me that I can, and need to do for myself, you contribute to my fear and inadequacy. But when you accept, as a simple fact, that I do feel no matter how irrational, then I can quit trying to convince you and get about the business of understanding what’s behind this irrational feeling. And, when that’s clear, the answers are obvious and I don’t need advice. Irrational feelings make sense when we understand what’s behind them. Please listen and just hear me, and if you want to talk wait a minute for your turn, and I’ll listen to you.
Ray Houghton, M.D.
Take that extra time, listen, be there, offer that special gift for someone might be reaching out and need you. Remember we all have the ability to give this gift if we want to, it is up to us. Please give freely if asked and you just might help someone so that they will one day be saying Life Is Simply Good.
July 12th, 2005 at 9:52 pm
Life is Simply Good, you say this with such conviction (and support it with your observations) that it starts looking good to passimists also. You know you are doing good to so many people.
July 12th, 2005 at 10:31 pm
Being a good listener is an art. Sometimes it’s really hard to not only stay quiet, but to focus on what another person is saying ~ this is something I’ve strived to get better at, as often I find myself thinking of what I’m going to say next instead of concentrating on what is being said to me. What puzzles me immensely is how all my 53 years people have told me what a great listener I am. Who knew?
July 13th, 2005 at 2:34 am
To Listen with Our Eyes: I love this. How creative and How divine Human Beings can be. How gifted we are with the ability to make use of what we have, how endowed and how remarkable that diversity is. To have a passion for the soulful creations of man that seeps into art, poetry, books, and music, is to appreciate the sense of self and goodness that resides in us. When we go and willingly listen and tune in to everything and anything, then we can say it as convincingly as you do that Life is Simply Good.
July 13th, 2005 at 5:37 am
As a manager I always told people I learn a whole lot more when I listen than I do when I talk. They use to say I am too quiet. I just sit back and absorb then I speak.
Great post.
July 13th, 2005 at 6:16 am
Great post, Vickie. I do try to listen with compassion when someone is telling me something. Sometimes, I think I am too quick to give advice. I will listen more !
Life is Simply Good, as I stopped here today, before I started my day !!
*HUGS*
July 13th, 2005 at 6:54 am
Great advice and wisdom, as always… thank you.
July 13th, 2005 at 6:59 am
You always have a sense for what I need to hear and be reminded of. Thank you for being you and for being so special!!!
*HUGS* & Love you!
July 13th, 2005 at 8:16 am
Thanks, I really needed this today.
July 13th, 2005 at 10:53 am
oh yeah, you’ve got the gift. mi sister of the heart.
July 13th, 2005 at 1:08 pm
Thank you for that poem and the quote. Today a friend of mine told me that she had failed to be invited to the competition for the diplomatic service at the ministry of foreign affairs in her country (Germany). She was stunned and frustrated and needed to be cheered up. I started out by telling her how sorry I was. And that I knew it had been her dream for a very long time and that she had worked hard towards it. In fact, to show the proportions of this, ever since I know her in 2001 she had been talking about it. Subsequently I asked a whole bunch of questions about how it could be that she was not even allowed to participate in the exams in the first place, which criteria they had used, and so on. I said I could imagine it wouldn’t be easy for her to reorient now. And then at the end I said something stupid. I said ‘maybe it’s too early to say this now, but there are many ways we can make ourselves useful in this world.’ It didn’t feel good when I wrote that last sentence. After reading the quote I know why. She’s smart enough and much more dedicated than I am, and she can find that out by herself of course. I was already giving advice before I knew about all the details.
July 13th, 2005 at 3:16 pm
listening is very often the best thing we can do.. just that someone wants to know what is going on is enough to make a life renew.
thank you for a great post.
also, the theme rocks !
July 13th, 2005 at 4:32 pm
Amen, listening is truly an art.
Sorry I missed you at the train station - I waved but I guess you didn’t see me. I decided to just keep going to the end of the line and then maybe when I get bacl, my visitors will be gone!! Just
kidding, NOT…..
Hope you’re having a simply good day my friend.
July 13th, 2005 at 5:05 pm
When I saw the theme of the post I could’nt get what we used to say as a kid out of my head.
Listen, listen. The cat’s pissin’.
I know, I need help.
July 13th, 2005 at 7:17 pm
I’m listening.:wink: