Can You Hear Me?

You probably remember an old Verizon commercial, where a guy wearing dark glasses goes around talking into his phone, asking repeatedly, “Can you hear me now?”

Truth is, the only time we can really hear someone, is when we listen.

My favorite prayer (The Saint Francis Prayer) asks us to love rather than be loved, to understand rather than be understood and to give rather than receive…

Here it is… (A prayer of Saint Francis of Assisi)

"Lord, make me an instrument of your peace; where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is discord, union; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; and where there is sadness, joy.”

I hope Saint Francis doesn’t mind if I add a line to his beautiful prayer…

“Help me to become more interested, rather than interesting.”

You see... I love to chat, I get pretty animated sometimes and always seem to have plenty to say no matter where I am or who I’m with. And It occurs to me what I should be doing is just listening more…

Sometimes in our gifts for gab, our egos get so hyped up on ourselves we forget to pause and listen to what others have to say. Everyone has a story. You already know yours. And no one ever learned anything with their mouth open. So from now on I’m going to practice what I preach.

I’m talking less and listening more.

I’m going to listen to birds sing in the trees, the winds rustling palms, the waves crashing on sand. And I’m going to give my friends and family and even complete strangers my undivided attention.

In my new favorite prayer I’m not only going to love rather than be loved, I’m going to be interested rather than interesting.

I’m going to listen. Just listen. And learn.

Go ahead. Tell me something @[email protected]