Listening...

When I ask you to listen to me and you begin to tell me why I shouldn't feel that way, you are trampling on my feelings. When I ask you to listen to me and you feel you have DO something to solve my problem You have failed me, strange as that may seem. Listen. All that I asked was that you listen...not talk or do... just hear me. Advice is cheap, $1.00 dollar will get you both spiritual advice as well as etiquette tips in the same newspaper. I CAN do for myself, I'm not helpless. Maybe discouraged and faltering, but not helpless. When you do something for me that I can and need to do for myself, you contribute to my fear and weakness. But when you accept as a simple fact that I do feel what I feel, no matter how irrational, then I can quit trying to convince you and can get about the business of understanding what's behind this irrational feeling. And when that's clear, the answers are obvious and I don't need advice. Irrational feelings make sense when we understand what's behind them. Perhaps that's why prayer works, sometimes, for some people. Most gods are mute...they don't give advice or try to fix things. They just listen and let you work it out for yourself. So please...listen and just hear me... and if you want to talk, wait a minute and I'll listen to you. *** I found this thirty years ago...author unknown. I know it's good advice for me. I will try harder in this coming year...I know it's important. Just one more thing to love about Secondlife...no one can just talk over another. And so it goes My love to you all, brinda Namaste