Week FOUR

LISTENING: Cycle 2

Please Listen: A Poem

By: Leo Buscaglia

When I ask you to listen to meand you start giving me advice,You have not done what I asked.
When I ask you to listen to meand you begin to tell me whyI shouldn’t feel that way,you are trampling on my feelings.
When I ask you to listen to meand you feel you have to do somethingto solve my problem,you have failed me,strange as that may seem.
Listen! All I ask is that you listen.Don’t talk or do – just hear me…
And I can do for myself; I am 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 andInadequacy.
But when you accept as a simple factThat I feel what I feel,No matter how irrational,Then I can stop trying to convinceYou and get about this businessOf understanding what’s behindThis irrational feeling.
And when that’s clear, the answers are obvious and I don’t need advice.Irrational feelings make sense whenwe understand what’s behind them.
So please listen, and just hear me.And if you want to talk, wait a minutefor your turn– and I will listen to you.

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