This is one of my favourite posts from Humans of New York. The caption reads “When I was younger, I thought listening was just about learning the contents of someone’s mind. I’d always try to finish their thoughts, just to show them that I knew what they were thinking. As I got older, I learned to listen better. I realized that by trying to anticipate their mind, I was ignoring their heart.”
It gives me pause. Am I listening to learn the contents of someone’s mind? Or am I listening to their heart? And can I hear both their mind and heart?
Being together in circle, gathered around a question that matters, in the container of a slower pace of listening and speaking… there is greater potential for this kind of heart-listening to occur.
And the invitation is to carry this with us throughout our days. Where can we listen to the heart, not just the mind, of those we are in conversation with?