August 12, 2025
A Listening Collage
Today may we consider how listening, really listening, can create a space that allows a person to hear their own teacher. We have been influenced by great teachers; Dr. Sally Z. Hare, Parker J. Palmer, Elaine Sullivan, and more, who have helped us to know that deep listening is a gift. May you connect to one of our past readings here or one that we share as you consider how you give the gift of listening to those you encounter.
Rachel Naomi Remen in this entry recounts how she learned more about the power of listening. “One of my patients told me that when she tried to tell her story people often interrupted her to tell her that they once had something just like that happen to them. Subtly her pain became a story about themselves. Eventually she stopped talking to most people. It was just too lonely.”
As with many of our lives we want to connect to the people telling us a story by inserting ours. For me, this is a daily practice - just listening to the story. Not relating mine. Being the vessel that Mary Louise Peters gifts us below.
Mary Louise Peters, in this entry askes us to consider ourselves as a reflecting pool, a copper serving tray. Our task is to be and witness. Not to absorb, fix, correct, or set straight!
How do you know when you are truly a ‘good listener’?
Maya Angelou’s final message on Twitter said,
Listen to yourself, and in that quietude, you might hear the voice of God.
Invitation: Listen … hear
Invitation: Where can you find the space to listen? To yourself and others?
We will meet for the Community Table Monday, August 18th at 4:30 PM ET. Contact us for information HERE.
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We are also very excited about our friends Marshall Highet and Bird Jones’ new book The Washashore! We are grateful that some of the proceeds from the sale of the book will support our work. Get your copy and support Circles of Courageous Commons.
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 | A guest post by
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To listen, to love?
True listening tunes brains, beings.
Like cats sync with bugs.
...
May we listen, learn,
from our shared humanity.
Weave a world-wide tent.