Being Heard

A number of experiences that I gave to myself over the weekend just past have brought me to the subject of today's post.

The first experience was listening to a song written and performed by a French-Canadian group called Harmonium who were active in the 1970's. It has been some time since I listened to this particular CD, although it is one I always enjoy. One line from one of the songs really stood out for me this weekend: "On a mis quelqu'un au monde, on devrais peut-etre l'ecouter." Translated into English this means, "We brought someone into this world, we should perhaps listen to him or her."

On Sunday morning, I wrote a testimonial of my beliefs and conviction about the times we are living in and what they might mean for those of the Christian faith. It was a passionate appeal to those who look to One outside of themselves for their salvation, to look again, and this time, to look within and see the Christ consciousness as a potential, an incredibly beautiful and powerful potential, within them. I asked a Christian friend if she would do me the honour of reading it, of 'listening' through the text to what I had to say. She emailed me back almost immediately indicating that she would, so I sent the text to her.

On Sunday afternoon, I sat with a woman who is becoming my friend and listened as I love to, with all of myself, to her descriptions of her life experiences and her feelings about them. And as I listened to her, I also was able to hear my own insights into her experiences and to offer them to her. She chose to hear what I had to say about some of her experiences, some which had brought sadness and confusion to her. She later told me that my insights had resonated with her, had brought some new understanding to her of why certain things had happened in the ways that they had happened. She appreciated the depth of my listening, my hearing her. I appreciated the depth of her listening to what I had to say, to her hearing me.

On Sunday evening, I spoke over the telephone to the woman who had agreed to read my testimonial presenting my beliefs and convictions about the times we are living through as they pertain to Christians. It very quickly became apparent to me that although she had read the words, she had not 'heard' them. They hit a wall of 'this is the way it is because this is the way it is.' I felt unheard, my wisdom unacknowledged. In fact, she implied that I was blind to the truth and that I might find my way to it eventually.

I was very sad about this. I felt unheard and I realized that I have often felt unheard in my life, that I have given myself over and over again the experience of feeling unheard. And I have this to say: We should listen to each other, now more than ever. We should listen to each other and we should assume that we each are speaking profound truths and great wisdom. We should do this. We should do this now.