Listen Up!

My Granny use to say, "God gave you two ears and one mouth for a reason." We are really geared to listen.  Listen to others.  Listen to ourselves.  Listen to intuition.  Listen to the needs of our bodies.  Listen.  Real listening takes being silent.  I don't know about you, but sometimes the space of silence is filled with being uncomfortable and pain.  So, I fill it up with mindless chatter.  By doing that, I miss out on most of my life. Then when stuff happens I don't know how I missed it or worse yet, how to deal with it all.

The process of MickeyGrrrl in hospice, has really forced me to take a look at this.  To be in the space of silence with her, in order for me to know what to do to ease her transition.  At first I resisted this silence, this just being.  I felt like if I talked and talked and talked what was happening would just go away and MickeyGrrrl would be fine and all would be well.  I would haven't to deal with anything.  I wouldn't have to feel anything. This plan was making me crazy and depressed.  My only choice was to be still.  To listen.  MickeyGrrrl was telling me everything I needed to know to help her and to help me.  It was calming and life affirming.  I'm by no means perfect at this silence and listening thing, but it is an area to work in.  I'm feeling and seeing the results.

Stephen Covey says "In emphatic listening, you listen with your eyes and with your heart.  You listen for feeling, for meaning.  You listen for behavior. You use your right brain as well as your left. You sense, you intuit, you feel.  Empathic listening is powerful because it gives you accurate data to work with."  
Now that's livin'!

Are you comfortable with silence?  Do you allow yourself the space to be in silence, in order to listen?

                                                                         
Until next week create to feel great!
11 projects complete 41 to go!

This week's project came totally from listening to MickeyGrrrl.  She asked my to make her a Crane Chain.
I know the story of the 1000 Cranes. She told me this isn't what this is about.  She wanted 18 cranes to represent each year of her life, strung together with jewelry, because that her. The Grrrl Queen.  Jewelry and birds what could be better to honor her?  I've never done origami, but I found this easy to do to as the Grrrl sat by my side and slept.  I can't say I worked this in total silence as MickeyGrrrl was purring or snoring through most of it.