Last week in choir we were asked to close our eyes so we could better focus on blending with the other voices around us. It was good. It reminded me how recently when I started to smell an odd and worrying fume-like smell in the car whilst driving, I turned off the radio to concentrate on it more easily. Narrowing in on one sense sharpens it. I have been thinking about listening, and how the temptation is to speak, how incredibly hard it is to only use our ears and not our voices. I'm sure I'll have shared before that wonderful saying that many of us listen in order to reply, rather than to understand. Listening is a skill I can be pretty good at, yet still I often have the urge to share my thoughts rather than let the attention be completely on the speaker. Sometimes that's because of wanting to convey to the speaker that they are not on their own, that I'm there with them whilst they share - but is that still my stuff? I recall being told that we could counsel with a brick wall - it is the space we need rather than necessarily the other person. Other people can be massively useful when we're stuck. they can prod us in helpful directions, they can encourage us to see things from different perspectives, they can keep at us to find our courage to proclaim loudly the truth we know in our hearts. But I believe we can do that for ourselves too when needed.
So today I shall be on the lookout for times when I can keep my mouth shut more and really hear what others are trying to convey, before I wade in with my perceived wisdom :)
....
turns out keeping schtum is much harder than I thought :(
Still, I guess noticing where I feel tempted talk rather than stay listening is a start...
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