Listening

Did you ever wonder why people talk so much?

Being a jacket wearing, card carrying member of the motor-mouth association, there are times I am sick to death of hearing my own noise.

Then, to be fair, there are times I'm sick to death of hearing OTHER people's noise too.

When we are talking about something that is important to us as individual people, it's also important to remember that the people compelled to hear us may not be as enthusiastic as their pasted on smiles may make us believe.

Listening, really listening, not just with ears that are partially attuned to the message, but with a heart that is open to receive the feelings of the message is an essential that I am still searching to make part of me.

My mother was an excellent listener.

She didn't jump in with her opinion, advice or suggestions on what to do. She simply listened with her heart and in the process heard all that the words didn't convey at all.

She heard the loneliness and frustration of a heart that was hurting.

She could hear the hidden message from a child who simply didn't know enough words to share their message.

She was able to hear through the application of love.

I don't listen well. I am in a hurry and to paraphrase the lyrics by an Alabama song: 'I'm in a hurry to talk but I don't know why'...because I generally don't have anything worthwhile to say.

During my hours of dreaming of the better self I'd like to become, they say visualizing your goal is always the first step toward attaining it, I dream of a woman who is capable and WILLING to shut her mouth, censure her opinions and simply hear what another heart is crying out to say.

I'm not there yet.

There are days I'm not even sure I know where they path starts for the trip to 'there'.

But I still hope for the time where the ability to truly 'be still' is part of who I have become.

I can feel bits of that feeling in the temple.

It doesn't matter what geography plays host to the House of the Lord. When I am there, I am trying each time to listen in a way that I haven't done before. Not just listening but FEELING the words of inspiration that I seek.

It's not always a success.

Had I been a dog, I would have been a hyper, yippy, witless furbag who couldn't stay focused on the task at hand because something would distract me and off to the races I'd go.

I think of the soft hands of my Mother soothing a child who didn't always say what was going on, but she knew anyway as we would sit and talk.

Like now, the talking was mostly on my part. With Momma being gone now, she can't answer me in the way I'd like sometimes.

And sometimes words were not enough. Momma knew that. It was at those times when she would drop whatever she was doing and just sit and listen.

Years later when my boys were little, I asked her why she would put aside the house, the chores and the distractions of adult life to do so much sitting and listening.

She simply said that the dishes would wait, but that children won't.

I'm still trying to hear that message even now. Not just for children, but for anyone who has even the tinest interest in the real estate of my heart. I need to hear them as if their life matters as much to me as mine does.

Becasue surely, without those who are there to support me, if I am not able to be there for them, what good have I done in this world and will it matter in the end?