A tidbit of wisdom......Three.

Good Evening all. It's a bit past my bedtime so this will be shorter than usual. I appreciate you're coming to this blog and taking the time to read it. I hope this particular post causes thought.
This post is about something that is, I fear, dying as an ability. It's something that we absolutely must have to survive in today's world. It can make our relationships good, while at the same time it's absence can ruin the best and strongest of relationships. What, you ask, is so essential to life? What, you ask, is so missing in our culture? Ok, Ok, I'll tell you. It's the art (or is it a science) of listening. In my humble opinion it's absence causes more problems in relationships than any other single thing. If we all could listen as well as we could talk just think what a difference there would be in our lives, and yes, even in our world. I have in my meditating about this come to a couple of ideas about it. Reasons we (as a people) don't listen well? [one] We put too much time and effort into trying to convince ourselves and others that we have value, or put another way, trying to have a better self-esteem. That requires that we spend a lot of time talking about ourselves and what we know and feel. [two] We don't place enough value on what those around us say. We spend so much time comparing ourselves to others in so many ways that we, as a consequence, don't have the time to stop and listen to those in our lives. [three] Most of us never slow down long enough to really consider the extreme importance of listening. How many times has someone ask us "did you hear what I said"? The same question better put would be "did you listen to what I said"? We can, and usually do, hear things without really listening. So often our minds are full of other thoughts when we should be listening. How do we improve listening skills you ask? One way is to give the person you're communicating with your complete attention. Try to keep your mind on what they say and how they say it. Another way is to realize that those in our lives (well, most of them) really do have valid points of view, and we could learn a lot from them. Simply put, give value to those that are talking to us. I write this at the risk of over simplifying, but I believe that it is something that we need to address in ourselves. Ok, enough. I'm off to bed. ...........And so it goes.........