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The Gift of Listening.
[by Anonymous]
When I ask you to listen to me and you start giving advice
you have not done what i asked.
When I ask you to listen to me
and you begin to tell me why i shouldn't feel that way,
you are trampling on my feelings.
When I asked you to listen to me
and you feel you have to do something to solve my problem, you have
failed me, strange as it may seem
Listen! All I asked was that you listen:
not talk or does... just hear me. -- Do?
Advice is cheap: 25 cents will get you both
Dear Abby and Bill Graham in the same newspaper.
And I can do for myself; I'm not helpless.
Maybe discouraged and faltering, but not helpless.
When you do something for me that I can and need to do
for mysle, you contribute to my fear and weakness.
But when you accept as a simple fact that i do feel what i feel,
no matter how irrational,
then I can quite trying to convince you
and get about the business of understanding what's behind this
irrational feeling.
And when that's clear,
the answers are obvious and I
don't need advice.
Irrational feelings make sense when we understand
what's behinde them.
Perhaps that's why prayer works, sometimes, for some people
because god is mute and he doesn't give advice or
try to fix things. he just listens and lets you
work it out for yourself.
So please listen and just hear me. And if you want to
talk, wait a minute for your turn;
and I'll listen to you.
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