I've been reading a really great book, Seven Thousand Ways to Listen--Staying Close to What is Sacred by Mark Nepo. Granted, I haven't gotten far in it--one of those books that I take slowly and underline a lot!
I think that on a day-to-day basis, most of us listen at a very surface level. We easily get distracted by the many stimuli in our environment. I have a friend who often asks me to repeat the first three or four words of a statement I've just made--she doesn't initially pick up until I'm half-way through. Yep, I've been known to do that...
This author suggests that listening is about connecting with everything around us (not just people)--hearing the breeze rustling through the leaves; the sound of scampering animals in the forest; listening to the sound of waves on the ocean shore. What are they saying? What story do they have to share that we need to know? All of this puts us in touch with our environment, which ultimately teaches us to take care of it because we're all intimately connected.
Of course, when we think of listening we most often think of people. And the usual excuses for not hearing or not listening is: But they're boring; they drone on and on, etc. And, in some cases, that's true. However, Stephen Covey suggests that "most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply." I've been guilty of that as well.
I also know that it is a gift to the other person when I truly listen--listen with my soul--to what the words are telling me about them and their needs; about who they are at their very core.
Mark Nepo suggests: To awaken our heart through the reverence of listening strengthens the fabric that knits us all together.
The world could sure use more of that now, couldn't it? I have sooo much to learn...
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