The first duty of love is to listen.
—Paul Tillich
Who have you offered love to in the form of listening recently? Who has truly listened to you?
2 thoughts on “Listen”
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The first duty of love is to listen.
—Paul Tillich
Who have you offered love to in the form of listening recently? Who has truly listened to you?
Comments are closed.
Receiving a call from a long lost Peace Corps buddy with whom I’d served in Peru was a big surprise. Being cautious about phone solicitations I asked sternly; “WHO is calling please?” When Jerry identified himself, I immediately said, “Oh, Jerry with the red hair!” Correct! At that point it was my turn to listen to a lot of catching up information on his part since it was so long since I had heard about his life after PCV. The phone call was satisfying for both of us and I believe, especially for him. He had located me through another RPCV and it was his turn to talk about his life happenings along with a plea about having a group reunion of those of us who were in the same training group in 1962. Long time, no see; current time, catch up on news!
I try to do this as much as I possibly can. I took a course called Listening at my college a couple of years ago, and it’s had a lifelong impact. I try to entreat others to focus on listening — TRULY listening — to others, themselves, the environment around them. It’s so difficult to encourage an atmosphere of listening when there is so much going on in the world around us, nevermind all the internal buzzing we have in our heads. I feel that listening is a highly underrated subject, and it needs far more attention than it gets.