Surround Sound

Maybe this should have already been blatantly and abundantly clear, but I have come to a conclusion about kindness:

True kindness involves true listening.

It involves more than showing up and bumping into conversations that you have while your mind has its own traffic you attend to. Acts of kindness are the result of being present to listen fully to another. In fact, listening attentively is an act of kindness in itself. My good friend Katie has proven this time and time again. She is the most present listener that I know. Even with her (then two, now three) children running around, she is able to magically be present for each word. I never doubt that I am heard when I am with her. She listens with such presence that it makes me want to say things worth listening to. I want to listen like this.

I'm not there yet. I know about frantic paces, unrealistic expectations, and trying to keep up in this world. But taking breaks from the pace to breathe, to be present, to listen to the world around me isn't something I do often enough.

I've done the smallest amount of research on listening, and found the following for inspiration:

* "Prayer is when you talk to God; Meditation is when you listen to God." - Diana Robinson

* The reality of another person lies not in what he reveals to you, but what he cannot reveal to you. Therefor, if you would understand him, listen not to just what he says, but rather what he does not say." - Kalil Gibran

* "Listen a hundred times, ponder a hundred times, speak once." -Turkish proverb

* "Listening is a strange magnetic thing, a creative force. The friends who listen to us are the ones we move toward. When we are listened to, it creates us, makes us unfold and expand. "
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I am thinking that listening is an act of love, of leaving room enough for others to grow. It is meditative and holy; it is recognizing the presence of God in front of and around me. It is being surrounded by the song of life unfolding. I am trying to hear , and I have an idea that it takes BEING HERE NOW.