Listeners

When last did you feel someone really listened to you? Quietly listened, considered everything carefully and responded in a way that just hits the spot so sweetly. It’s amazing when it happens, like falling in love for the first time. From then on everything fits together. Friends like this are rare finds. Some people search their whole lives for just one person they can really connect with.

I sometimes wonder whether we have become such poor listeners and communicators that we’ve cut ourselves off from the very thing that makes us feel most alive. We’re so busy with trivial everyday things that make us appear to be functioning, we hardly ever make time to connect properly with people, and so we are constantly unfulfilled. We fill this hole with friendly acquaintances we have very little in common with and waste time talking about politics, TV shows and the weather, or buy ourselves luxury items to make us feel better.

I believe the search for true connection is the biggest reason why online journals have become such a huge trend. It’s not so much crazy people who are crying out for attention, just ordinary people searching for a soul to connect with. It’s the biggest billboard to place your ad.

How many people dish out money every day to shrinks and call girls just so someone would hear them out, and we all know they don’t listen either. If we took the time to really listen to our friends and family, imagine how many shrinks would be out of work. And imagine how few sanity drugs and worldly possessions we’d need to feel real happiness.

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Paperfrog: “The Observer has an article online which suggests that Britons — like many Westerners — have lost the gift of meaningful conversation.”