Listening

Deep listening is the kind of listening that can help relieve the suffering of another person. You can call it compassionate listening. You listen with only one purpose: to help him or her to empty his heart. Even if he says things that are full of wrong perceptions, full of bitterness, you are still capable of continuing to listen with compassion. Because you know that listening like that, you give that person a chance to suffer less.

                                                                Thich Nhat Hanh

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Sometimes

Perhaps most of the time

It don’t listen

Not deep listening

Instead my mind races ahead

Whirling

Processing

And suddenly I am not there

I am not listening

I am talking

Interrupting

Talking over

And so the other cannot empty her heart

All that is in him, needing to be said, stays there

And in the end

We both suffer

I suffer because I have failed in compassion and presence

They suffer because I have failed in compassion and presence

Sometimes l really don’t like myself

All

That

Much

O Beloved

quiet my my mind

my heart 

my soul

help me to be

present