Listening to someone can be the best gift you can give, and it doesn’t cost a dime, just a bit of your time. Recently, a friend suffered a traumatic event. As I listened, I realized she wanted and needed to talk about it. She told me how scared she felt and the strange feeling of unreality. Twice, she thanked me for listening. She was grateful to have someone who cared, someone who wished her well and didn’t interrupt, just listened.
The busyness of life causes us to miss a lot of what’s really important. When a child discovers the outgrown shell of a locust clinging to the bark of a tree, when a little one is troubled by something that happened on the playground, when a husband or a wife runs into a problem with a colleague, we need to stop what we are doing, forget our own troubles for a moment, and give our full attention. We need to listen.
We are quick to bring food or rally round when disaster strikes and that is good. It shows that we care. But, I believe that even more important is sitting down with someone or running with them to see that beautiful rainbow before it fades. Trying to look through other eyes and feel what they are feeling, is the most important thing anyone can do. And, to do that, we must listen.
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