When we hear, are we truly Listening?

Listening is one of the most loving things you can do for someone.  It can lift the emotional burdens and allow the heart to gently heal.  It’s the key to the beginning of true transformation.  It helps us to build a bridge of understanding and reconciliation.  Listening comes before forgiveness.  Forgiveness is the pathway to a higher quality of relationship with your partner, family members, neighbors, your community, and with the world.  Here’s the question we need to ask ourselves:  Are we willing to be good listeners?

Our beloved Martin Luther King talked about “The beloved Community.”  And he said the beloved community is a world that works for all.  He stated that of course there would be conflicts, but in this beloved community, we find a way to work through conflict in a peaceful, respectful, and loving way.  We need to find ways to create a world that works for everyone, because everyone is valued, respected, honored, needed, and loved. This is an example of being transformed.

The first line in our Constitution, in the preamble, speaks of this beloved community.  It invites us to build a more perfect union.  If we are committed to building a more perfect union, then we listen to the voices, the needs, the problems, and the wants of EVERY person. We open our heart and let go of our ego.  Listening brings us closer to transformation, closer to forgiveness, closer to understanding, and closer to brotherhood, sisterhood, and to love. And, it may even mean letting go of old beliefs that may be embedded in our DNA.  So, my question to you is: How important is it for you to be a loving presence in the world today? This commitment will require that we acknowledge the mistakes of the past, and allow those mistakes to transform us.

The time is now.  We are either going to live in division, or we are going to build this blessed community where listening and forgiveness are the foundation.  The practice of forgiveness is the cornerstone to healing.  Please keep in mind that angry people cannot create a peaceful planet.  We must transform this anger into positive energy.  We cannot do that unless we all come together under the mantle of love and are willing to listen, make changes, seek forgiveness, and honor one another.

I am eager to create a more loving and peaceful world, and I know you are, too.  May this willingness to listen and to reconcile, truly unite us. May this beloved community, this transformation, bless us with peace in our thoughts, words, and actions.