Nobody Listens In This World

As my mom used to say to me, "we have two ears and one mouth - use them appropriately."  Yet, these days, we seem to act as if we have two mouths and one ear.  We talk more than we listen.  Listening is a part of our society that is vanishing.  Nobody listens in this world.

We are in a society that thinks everyone has to scream and rant and rave all day and every day about the latest headlines.  We're not in listening mode - we're in speaking mode.  If you observe and watch closely, you will see that no one is truly listening to each other.

I often watch little kids in public places just trying to get the attention of their parents.  They just want them to care and show that they are listening to them.  Far too often, I see the parents texting someone or glued to their phone and the poor child is feeling very neglected.

On social media, everyone wants to tell everyone what they should do it seems or how they should think.  Everyone thinks that everybody else wants to read the regurgitated rhetoric over and over throughout the day.  This not listening at all.  It is people speaking far too much and in many ways, not adding anything to our world.

Be a friend and listen...

Often people just need someone to listen.  They don't need them to formulate some meme or happy thought.  They don't need them to tell them what to do or how to think or what to say.  They just need someone to be a friend and listen.

Listening can be so healing and helpful.  It can give courage and strength to those who are struggling in difficult times.  Listening can open up a compassionate heart by removing pain that is too difficult to bear.

Listening can give courage and strength to those who may be struggling to hold on in their day.  Just the act of listening says I care and sometimes that is more than enough.

We all take listening for granted, but in communication - it is a very powerful tool.  Without listening, the words spoken between one another would have no place to land.  Without listening, we'd never understand another's point of view or their thoughts or emotions or ideas.

Listening is so important.  Let us all try to remember that we have two ears and one mouth like my mother used to say.  If we use it in that proportion, than we should be listening more than we are speaking?  How's that going in your life?

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Blog Post And Images (c) 2017 by Don Shetterly

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
• You are welcomed to share the LINK to this blog post.  

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Meeting A Friend With A Kindred Heart

For months now, I've been chatting online with someone that has become a good friend of mine.  We had not met, but became acquainted through a mutual connection.  It didn't take long to establish a friendship because there was much we shared in common.

This person happens to be a regular columnist on my blog now and her name is Marie.  I'm so thrilled to have gotten to meet her in person because she's exactly like what she sounds like in all of our email conversations.

When we caught up, it was like we had known each other for centuries.  As nervous as I usually am when meeting someone new, I just didn't experience that.  It just felt easy to make the connection.

I was with her and her dogs at a Dog Agility competition and so I got to see something I had never been around.  It was fun watching all the dogs and people interact.  While I thought I might be like a sore thumb in a meat market, I felt perfectly fine and normal there.

After the last run Marie did with her dogs, I was walking with her as she took the dogs back to her little RV.  They had so much energy and were playing, making it difficult for her to not get tangled up in their leashes.  So, I asked if I could take one of the dogs to help her out.

The next thing I knew, Saki and I were running around having fun.  I'm not sure who enjoyed it the most, me or Saki?  It was a wonderful moment.  It was like I had a friend and felt so connected to Saki and Marie.

We went back to her little RV and just sat and talked.  Saki came up on her lap and decided to span the both of us with her face and front paws resting on my leg.  It was a moment I will cherish.

Often because I work from home, I am somewhat isolated.  I know it is something I need to find a solution too, but it just helped to talk to someone that understood and I could truly be myself.  It helped to connect with the dogs.

It is a moment I will always cherish and the picture at the top of this post is Marie, myself and her dog.  There is one dog hiding under our feet, but Saki is the resting on my leg.

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Blog Post And Images (c) 2017 by Don Shetterly

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
• You are welcomed to share the LINK to this blog post.  

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Talking Without Listening

Time and time again, I see just how disconnected we are becoming as a human species.  Communication is poor at best and yet, we have all these communication devices to help us stay in touch.  It is really sad to watch if you sit back and take it all in.

Listening is the key skill that we've missed.  I see so many talk without listening.  Its like everyone has more on their mind of what to say, than to spend a split second listening.  Everyone has their minds running at such a fast rate and their nervous system pumped up as if it was on steroids, only to skip the part of listening to another person.

The past week I saw this happen so many times, it almost made my head completely spin around.  Talking without listening was at every corner I turned.  I remember the one lady in a Fedex office that didn't even know what I was trying to do, but she was already giving me an answer.  I remember the support person on the phone that started telling me what I needed to do, long before they were aware of what the situation was.