listen, just listen?

It seemed a theme this week, the first week of spring, vaccinations under way, and all of us a bit restless:

The need to "help" through giving advice, or giving reassurance, a pep talk. Interrupting with so much good intention. I found myself doing it, even as others were asking me how they might listen better.

Silence. Stillness. Trusting this. Listen = Silent, same letters.

Rachel Naomi Remen writes: “Listening creates a holy silence. When you listen generously to people, they can hear truth in themselves, often for the first time. And in the silence of listening, you can know yourself in everyone. Eventually you may be able to hear, in everyone and beyond everyone, the Unseen singing softly to itself and you.” And: "The most basic and powerful way to connect to another person is to listen. Just listen. Perhaps the most important thing we ever give each other is our attention. . . . A loving silence often has far more power to heal and to connect than the most well-intentioned words."

Stillness does not mean I do not care deeply. Quite the opposite. Shall we experiment? Definitely my intent...