TO HEAR
“We can close our eyes, but we cannot close our ears. Without ear-lids we are in a sense always open to the world, to its noise and joy, its confusion and its deep cries. Our eardrums cannot but resonate with what is around us. We thrum, whether we like it or not.
Sometimes we drown sounds with other sounds, or we shut ourselves down and refuse to acknowledge what we are hearing. Sometimes we are caught up and lifted out of ourselves because of something we heard.
When depth is measured at sea it is done by sounding.
And like the sea our hearts have depths we are unaware of -- depths we may be frightened of.
If we listened to one another with the humility of knowing that we do not know, then depth would be there for both speaker and hearer; there our stories, our needs and sorrows, as well as our joys would be sounded. It is no accident that the old-fashioned term for being well is to be sound.
By listening deeply we can discover how healing and mysterious it is to be human, to live at once in the depth and loneliness of unknowing and in the noisy bustling commerce of ordinary days.”
Simple Ways Toward the Sacred by Gunilla Norris Pg 15
Invitation: “…always open to the world…”
More about Gunilla Norris’ work HERE
We will meet for the Community Table Monday, March 3rd at 4:30 PM ET. Contact us for information HERE.
We will begin our daily Shared Solitude: Embracing the gift of silence in community offered by our Courageous friend Emily - on March 3rd at 6:30 am ET and March 4th at 3:00 pm ET. See more on our Calendar HERE
Learn More About Circles of Courageous Commons HERE
I am grateful for Gunilla Norris' insight about listening and listening deeply -- "If we listened to one another with the humility of knowing that we do not know, then depth would be there for both speaker and hearer; there our stories, our needs and sorrows, as well as our joys would be sounded. It is no accident that the old-fashioned term for being well is to be sound." I am thinking of listening to understand, listening to learn, listening to empathize -- rather than listening to defend or criticize.