Sunday, September 28, 2008

Learning to listen

A piece from the Zen Moments website got my attention earlier this evening, and I've been mulling it over ever since. It's about the importance of learning to listen to others.

From it:

Unless you listen, you can’t know anybody. Oh, you will know facts and what is in the newspapers and all of history, perhaps, but you will not know one single person.

and

Now, how to listen. It is harder than you think. Creative listeners are those who want you to be recklessly yourself, even at your very worst, even vituperative, bad- tempered. They are laughing and just delighted with any manifestation of yourself, bad or good. For true listeners know that if you are bad-tempered it does not mean that you are always so. They don’t love you just when you are nice; they love all of you.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Thank you for this link. These are some of the most valuable words I have read on the McInternet in quite some time.

-Jeannie

M said...

I'm glad I found it so that I could share it. :)

tamater sammich said...

I love that phrase "to be recklessly yourself."

This is a really nice blog.

M said...

Thanks so much! Those words weren't my own, though. I was just lucky enough to read them and pay attention to them. :)