There things that remind us of the kind of listening that takes place at our beloved Listening Post. Some quotations that seem to capture a profound aspect of our simple service. Here’s a quote from Neale Donald Walsch that one of our volunteers, B.G., shared with me recently:
“Suddenly, when the heart opens, the Mind opens. It can hear things it could not hear before, like the soft voice of the Soul.”
That line spoke to B.G, he sensed it shined a light on how, through listening with the compassion of our hearts, “we become aware of what connects us all.” I, too, am moved by that aspect of listening. There is a level of listening that has an immediate practical value – one person needs to share and be heard and at the LP we meet that need. It is direct and loving. A beautiful service right there. If that was as far as it ever went it is of profound value. Yet there are those moments that seem to go even deeper. Those moments do feel sudden and they blow it wide open in a way that we can’t plan for in advance. It is an oceanic kind of listening – listening from within what connects us all.
It seems like when I first began as a volunteer listener, I was doing the listening. It hit me at some point, though, that is really the other way around. It is the listening that does me. I know you know what I mean. When the listening comes from within what connects us all… it isn’t personal any more, it isn’t like I’m doing it. Listening Happens.