I have just hung up:
why did he telephone?
I don’t
know….Oh! I get it ….
I talked a lot
and listened very little
Forgive me, Lord;
it was a monologue and not a dialogue
I explained my
idea and did not get his;
Since I didn’t
listen, I learned nothing,
Since I didn’t
listen, I didn’t help,
Since I didn’t
listen, we didn’t commune.
Forgive me, Lord,
for we were connected,
And now we are
cut off
Michael
Quoist (Prayers)
______________________________________
It happened on
Facebook
It happens all the
time, said to say
It happens in
bars,
And around the
tables in the local café
It even happens
in churches
A comment is made
And the feeding
frenzy begins
I started such a
frenzy myself, just this evening
A comment was
made
I didn’t agree
I made assumptions
I threw out the
challenge
And I did it in
such a way as to make the other defensive
Damn!
I asked a
question
But it was loaded
I could have been
different
I should have
been different
It is really not
that hard
“Tell me more”
“What makes you
feel the way you do? Tell me your story”
I might find that
that person so passionately upset that people with an addiction
get free drugs to
help them,
may be in danger
of dying because the drugs he needs cost more than he can afford
That the woman who
is so violently angry at women who have an abortion
Hides the pain of
not being able to bear a child her self
That the person
who is sharp and judgmental
Is really tired
and frustrated and struggling with whether his life has any value
(Hmmmm, is that me
in the mirror)
Perhaps we will
find that other person has a valid point
A valuable
perspective
We can stop
Breathe
Listen
Ask questions
Ask more
questions (based on the free information we receive)
Slowly but surely
the gap between ourselves and others
Will narrow
Slowly, in spite
of all the landmines that lie strewn between us
We can work our
way toward one another
Its possible
Jesus was great
at it
I, sadly am not
But I can try
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