About Really Listening

What an incredible week!  Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day on Monday; interviewed by Academy of the Holy Angels students on Thursday; Conversation with Our Legislators yesterday: 16 legislators and 68 constituents present; and today I was invited to offer the reflection at the Sisters of St. Joseph Bethany Convent. 

It is no surprise civil civic engagement was central in each of these opportunities.  It also is no surprise that the more I listen to others the more I learn - the more I learn the more I know I need to listen more. 

No one person - no single group holds the whole answer to any question.  Individual voices and experiences are important...and the well-being of the many, particularly the marginalized, is also important. 

Carol Zinn, SSJ, (former CSSJ NGO Representative to the United Nations) said in 2007, "Relationship is all there is.  Who we are with each other who we are with the world."  

Very few of us are truly hard of hearing.  Yet, so many of us are "hard of listening."  Count me among the the hard of listening who each day tries harder to listen more intently and justly, especially to those whose perspective is different than mine.  This is the hard and the rewarding work of life...all aspects of life.  I am still listening and learning.  And it is good.