Dear Friends,
A quick note: Thank you for reading and listening this week. Below, you’ll find a short contemplation on the art of listening along with links to this week’s podcasts and meditations. Lastly, if you are not already a paid member, consider taking advantage of this weekend’s Holiday Special — 60% discount.
📿 The Art of Listening
This week’s contemplation comes from the writer and theologian Henri Nouwen (1932—1996). In Bread for the Journey, Nouwen wrote,
Listening is paying full attention to others and welcoming them into our very beings. The beauty of listening is that those who are listened to start feeling accepted, start taking their words more seriously, and discovering their own true selves. Listening is a form of spiritual hospitality by which you invite strangers to become friends, to get to know their inner selves more fully, and even to dare to be silent with you.
There is a difference between hearing and listening.
The theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer observed, “There is a kind of listening with half an ear that presumes already to know what the other person has to say. It is an impatient, inattentive listening that is only waiting for a chance to speak.”
One of the reasons the art of listening is challenging is because it requires us to let go of our need to prove ourselves. Faithful listeners no longer have an inner need to make their presence known. They are free to receive, to welcome, to accept.
Contemplation Questions (Pick one or create your own!):
What stands in the way of giving your full attention?
How can you begin to cultivate the art of listening?
This Week’s Meditations…
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Thank you for reading/listening this week; I hope you found something useful.
Until next time, be wise and be well,
J.W.
P.S. If you are not already a paid member, take advantage of this weekend’s Holiday Special — 60% discount.