By Linda Sherry
What does it mean to be a people of Deep Listening?
Active Listening, a skillset taught broadly in the ’80s and ’90s, is defined as :
the ability to focus completely on a speaker, understand their message, comprehend the information and respond thoughtfully.
So how would you define Deep Listening?
This month we will consider listening in more profound ways, ways we might call Deep Listening.
Perhaps when we listen deeply, it is for more than information or exchange of thoughts. Perhaps it is when we listen for the reasons, for the context, for the issues, for the backstory, for the impact. Here are a few thoughts you might want to ponder as WUUC embarks on this month’s theme.
What if listening was really an act of love?
What if listening was really an act of prayer?
Perhaps you’ve discovered in those rare moments of deep listening that a space suddenly opens up? A space that feels sacred. A space that, once you’ve experienced it, you never want to leave.
“To listen deeply is very hard, because it asks of us so much interior stability that we no longer need to prove ourselves by speeches, arguments, statements, or declarations. True listeners no longer have an inner need to make their presence known. They are free to receive, to welcome, to accept.”
— Henri Nouwen
“We don’t just listen for clarity and guidance, we listen to become larger. Those voices calling us home are our home. We don’t have conversations, we are our conversations. …
“We must remember friends: Who we listen to is who we become.”
— Rev. Scott Tayler
“Listening to both sides of a story will convince you that there is more to a story than both sides.”
— Frank Tyger
Do we only listen to the words? What if we listen to the silence between the words?
Listening in moments without words… a cricket chirps… my heart beats… life is precious… I am filled with gladness.