Friday, October 7, 2022

Listening

Megan Glenn

I have always thought of myself as a good listener. I think at one point I was. But over the years, the tendency to multi-task, the need to “get things done,” has clouded my focus. I chuckled at Rob’s sermon on Sunday when he set the stage of two people in the kitchen, one talking earnestly while the other simply nods and says, “uh huh.” This is me. Not all the time, but more frequently than I would like to admit, especially with my kids. My sister pointed this out once on a recent visit when she recalled a story she had told me the previous day. I had no idea what she was talking about. “You’re a bad listener” she told me. I was horrified and humbled.

Rob’s sermon reminded me of the importance of listening, of connection, of actually turning towards people. That the simple (not so simple) act of listening is actually an act of love. I recently read a passage that has also drilled this home for me:

So much is going on at any one time beneath what we show the world that all our feelings, all our thoughts and expressions, splash like water on those we surface before. In this way, every person when looked squarely in the eye… is full of things that cannot be said… We often don’t take the risk or time to stand before another long enough for their truth to surface. This is what I need, for you to wait till I can get there…After all the trouble we go through to find each other, we must wait over and over for our loved ones to break through with their wisdom. —Mark Nepo