To connect to ourselves, each other and the Spirit, sometimes we need someone to take time, to pay attention, to listen…to really listen. We don’t need someone to solve our problems or issues, but to understand, even to feel, our situation with us. And to support us. We need someone who cares about us, who affirms us, who takes us as we are, and who will be with us.

With this listening resource, we can hope to loosen the tight structures of our lives and realize that perhaps there are gaps where something different, something unexpected could happen. We can play with thoughts and ideas as we have not been able to before. We can even begin to listen to ourselves.

We aren’t sick, but we are human and sometimes we need someone to be with us as we talk through what’s on our mind. Through the process of Intensive Listening, by both speaker and listener, awareness of unformulated ideas or thoughts held too rigidly come to the fore.

The Speaker, the Listener and the Focus form a Triangle of Attention during an exchange.  The Focus is whatever the Speaker wants to talk about; it may be a past experience, a relationship, a feeling, a situation.  The Speaker draws the attention of the Listener to the Focus so that both try to see, to hear the same things.  The Listener asks questions to clarify, so that the Focus becomes clearer.  By objectifying the Focus and describing it to another, the Speaker can begin to understand it better.

…about my work with those in need, those on the fringes of society, those who are my neighbors? No? Well, stay tuned, because I’m going to be writing more.

In the meantime, you can check out the web site of the two projects I’m most involved with…Boulder Outreach for Homeless Overflow (BOHO) and Medical Respite Boulder.

There is much to tell…about the work, about my call, about my questions, about the love…it’s a way to listen AND a way to draw attention to life.

…of Your Longing”
by Rainer Maria Rilke; translation by Joanna Macy and Anita Barrows

God speaks to each of us as he makes us,
then walks with us silently out of the night.

These are the words we dimly hear:

You, sent out beyond your recall,
go to the limits of your longing.
Embody me.

Flare up like flame
and make big shadows I can move in.

Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror.
Just keep going. No feeling is final.
Don’t let yourself lose me.

Nearby is the country they call life.
You will know it by its seriousness.

Give me your hand.

—Rilke’s Book of Hours, I, 59

Click here to hear Joanna Macy’s reading.