A Silence that Matches Our Best Possibilities- Daily Meditation 2.21.23

Today’s quotation:

There is a silence that matches our best possibilities when we have learned to listen to others.  We can master the art of being quiet to be able to hear clearly what others are saying. . . . We need to cut off the garbled static of our preoccupations to give to people who want our quiet attention.-Eugene Kennedy

Today’s Meditation:

I’ve known very few good listeners in my life.  I’ve been a good listener much less often than I’ve wanted to be.  I try hard to listen well because I know it’s the most respectful thing I can do for another person, but it is tough for me because there’s so much that I want to contribute to the conversation.  So instead of listening all the time, I often think about what I’m going to say, and instead of responding directly to what the other person has said, I say the words I had thought of a while before.

We do have a lot of interference in our brains when listening to others.  We have thoughts and desires and biases and judgments to work through because our listening skills are compromised as soon as they come up.  As soon as I start formulating a response to someone, I’m not listening fully any longer.  I’m astonished at the people who are on their phones or computers while supposedly listening to someone else and still claim that they’re hearing everything being said.  They’re not.

Listening to another person may be the best thing we can ever do for him or her.  Paying close attention to what they’re saying can be the most incredible show of respect anyone ever shows them.  Hearing what they’re saying and what they’re not saying may be the most helpful thing we can ever do for our fellow human beings.  Yet few of us are taught how to do it, so we need to find ways of learning how to listen and practice the skill as much as possible with everyone with whom we interact.  If we do so, we can do something for them that perhaps no one else indeed does.

It can be a significant challenge to refrain from responding and just listening.  It can be tough not to judge and to listen.  But it’s a challenge worth taking on, for when we listen to other people, we’re strengthening our world by helping another person find a strength that he or she might not have been aware they had.

Questions to consider-Our Best Possibilities:

When was the last time that someone truly listened to what you said?  How did it make you feel?

Why do we spend so little time listening and so much time formulating our responses?

How might we go about practicing our listening skills?

For further thought-Our Best Possibilities:

Listening may be one of the most important activities we can choose to participate in our entire lives.  Listening–excellent listening– involves much more than our ears.  To listen, we need to empty ourselves for a while.  We need to adjourn the committee in our heads and invite its members to take an extended vacation.  To listen fully, we must dismiss idle head chatter, criticism, and judgmentalism.  Otherwise, our heads are far too crowded to have room for anything new.-Anne Wilson Schaef

If you missed our last Daily Meditation, it is right here.