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| Listen |
When I ask you to listen to me and you start giving advice,
you have not done what I asked.
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 that you have to do
something to solve my problem- you have failed me, strange as that
may seem.
Listen! All I asked was that you listen; not talk or do- just hear
me. Advice is cheap: 36 cents will get you both Dear Abby and Billy
Graham in the same newspaper. And 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.
Irrational feelings make sense when we understand what's behind them.
So, please listen and just hear me. And if you want to talk, wait
a minute for your turn, and I'll listen to you.
-- Unknown |
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