My friend, Jean, and I have been meeting for spiritual reflection for close to twenty years. Through the years, sometimes weekly, and sometimes monthly. Others have joined us for periods of time, but we two are the base. Jean has been keeping journals for 30 plus years and sometimes she sends me a page or a quote from one of them. This is one I found in the files, I don't know when it was sent or the circumstance.
To Carolyn, Norma, Don, Tom and Catherine
You listened patiently
Sometimes you gave me pieces of feedback
You listened again and again -
to what you probably knew was foolishness,
not wise, didn't make sense.
But you listened, because I needed to talk.
You allowed me to be where I was - wandering
in a place no where
I sat on chairs that did not exist,
Slept in beds that were not there.
And you all waited for me to get through this.
You never pushed or pulled me.
Though sometimes you may have wanted to.
You never laughed, though sometimes
I may have seemed very silly.
You listened - heard my dreams and desires
even when I couldn't see or accept them myself.
You were my sisters and my brothers
in ways I had never known.
In tears I thank God for each of you
given to me for a special purpose
to help me survive this past nine months.
Who I will become - I don't know?
But I am wizer, richer, more at peace,
feel loved in many new ways.
all because you listened.
Jean
Recently our grandson Stephen, who has been getting up at 5:00 a.m. to feed the poor in Spokane - he lives about 35 miles away - told his mother: "I noticed that sometimes all people want is for you to listen!" Very insightful for an 18 year old.
Jean says to think of our ears. Considering their shape, the two of them together form a heart... to listen.
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