Word for the Week

 Listen

Each Sunday someone in my church congregation starts the service with what we call "first word".  Occasionally I am asked to give the "first word". This coming Sunday I will be doing so. What has been on my mind to share is the word, Listen. So often, in conversation with another, we forget to really listen. By listening we need to truly hear them and not put our own agenda and assumptions into the basket. We need to listen and clarify when we don't quite get it. Do you find this as irritating as I do when I share and the person doesn't really hear my heart? Did I need to share it in a different way, so they hear? 

Picture is on Mt. Hood, walking in the woods and listening to the sound of the water and breeze through the trees.
 

I will be reading a Mary Oliver poem from Why I Wake Early for them.

"Just a minute," said a voice......

"Just a minute," said a voice in the weeds.

So I stood still

in the day's exquisite early morning light

 and so I didn't crush with my great feet

any small or unusual thing just happening to pass by

where I was passing by

on my way to the blueberry fields,

and maybe it was the toad

and maybe it was the June beetle

and maybe it was the pink and tender worm

who does his work without limbs or eyes

and does it well

or maybe it was the walking stick, still frail

and walking humbly by, looking for a tree,

or maybe, like Blake's wondrous meeting, it was

the elves, carrying one of their own

on a rose petal coffin away, away

into the deep grasses. After awhile

the quaintest voice said, "Thank you" And then there was silence.

For the rest, I would keep you wondering.

Picture where I sat with a friend and listened to the birds around us while sipping a cup of tea.

 

Now what I heard from this poem that the writer was listening.  The writer responded by hearing what the speaker said and then the writer thought on these words of "Just a minute" and "Thank you". Do we truly hear, do we listen and take the words into our wonderment?

At the end of my sharing we will be singing a song written by Ken Medema:

Teach me to stop and listen,
Teach me to center down,
Teach me the use of silence,
Teach me where peace is found.

Teach me to hear your calling.
Teach me to search your word,
Teach me to hear in silence,
Things I have never heard.

Teach me to be collected,
Teach me to be in tune.
Teach me to be directed,
Silence will end so soon.

Then when it’s time for moving,
Grant it that I may bring,
To every day and moment
Peace from a silent spring. 

 Can you tell listening and hearing are very important to me? If you met me in person you would know that I am a person of few words, one reason sometimes my posts are not long. But on the other hand I want to be heard when I speak. I am passionate about this and could go on and on about how much it irritates me when in a group and people are speaking over each other and turning the subject around or on to themselves. It is a "discussion" my own husband (my "live-in gardener") and I have sometimes. 

So for today my word is LISTEN. Take it to heart, learn to hold another in the silence of your listening.

Thanks, dear friends, for listening.