Looking For a Gift to Give?
Listen
Your feelings stop getting hurt when you realize most people are just waiting for their turn to speak. You don’t become hypersensitive to their blank stares after you’ve poured your heart out to someone on the edge of their seat eagerly waiting for a moment in between your breath to tell you what you should do, what you should feel. It doesn’t get easier, but it gives you peace of mind knowing that no matter how much you want, or try… people come to understand at their level of awareness.
I can’t tell you the thousands of people that I’ve met, their lives coloring parts of my mind with their trials, tribulations, love, and insecurities. Every person I sat with and gazed deep into their eyes witnessing the emotions they’ve poured into every word they speak was delightfully surprised that someone is actually listening. I can’t describe the gratitude they radiate, realizing someone actually took a moment to latch onto every word they’ve said. Even if they didn’t exhale the words, I felt it.
The gift of listening is free.
I’ve experienced people blatantly look me in the eye as they draw up this lie, trying to convince me it was the truth. I say nothing. I hold the space for them to one day hopefully realize they’ve been kidding themselves this entire time. I’ve experienced people recollect the moments of terror and fear that crept in their childhood and robbed them of their spirit. I see them stricken with fear and relief that someone did not ridicule their vulnerability. I’ve experienced people filled with laughter recalling memories of moments that were irreplaceable, just the thought made them smile and look off in the distance. I’ve experienced people full of love sharing how and when they’ve come to their senses as to what broke them to open to love.
I could recite many conversations that to this day ring in my head. I’ve forgotten many conversations that only lasted minutes but forever to that person. I can recall their smile but what stands out the most is no matter the story they shared with me, the grand prize was at the end when they smiled and felt grateful someone had finally listened to them.
People feel grateful that someone had listened without motive. Someone listened without interjecting their beliefs onto them as they tried to make sense of what had happened to them.
I smile at the thought of all the souls I’ve experienced giving them the gift of listening. The monetary system is so ingrained in our psyche that we feel the need to receive everything for what we do. For a moment, let’s hypothetically think of the effects we can have on the people we love and come across if we gave them the gift of listening without interruption.
When was the last time someone truly listened to you, listened without the intention of speaking? Can you remember them or remember the conversation? What did they look like, the look in their eyes as you shared your deepest part of you with a stranger?
I am a stranger to many that I’ve given the gift of listening. Souls always wonder why I took the time out of my day to listen to what they have to say as if they are not a brilliant rendition of spirit in human form. The person sitting directly across from me is the most important person in the room for however long I get the pleasure of taking in who they are as a person. Why don’t we treat people as such? As a beautiful gift that was placed before us with reason and intention. Perhaps we will never understand the circumstances that brought them before us, but deep inside of us we can discover something within us that’s been asking to be seen through physical form, with a heartbeat.
I don’t care who you are, what you do, the amount of information you can recite, or your fucking accolades. I care about: how much truth can you fill in a room, how deeply your love is received, how present you are within the present, how much love can you give to someone you can’t benefit from, the gratitude that you feel from the joy of being alive, the depth you can dive within yourself to find your truth, the goals that make other’s lives a little bit easier from you being alive, the love that you can give freely without expectation for return, the place you can hold in someone’s heart and mind because you’ve touched them deeply without motive, thinking of someone else before yourself for once, the ability to look beyond your selfish wants, what you can contribute to the world with your limited human experience.
Can you recall the last time someone thanked you for holding space for other than yourself in the presence of another? When will you realize there is more to life than what you can receive?
