An Engineer's Ear

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Might as well blog while I am laid up with the crud. A long time ago, I was given a very kind way of looking at a weakness of mine. I was told that I have an engineers ear...That I am listening to people with an intent to understand and formulate a solution or response. My brain is cranking overtime while the other person is talking, processing, analyzing and accessing its internal database for the perfect comment, answer or exemplum. I am listening. but not generously. "Listening generously" is the best gift you can give someone who is talking to you. It means withholding your own thoughts to concentrate on what they are truly saying...not the personal, internal schema it conjures up in your own mind. I am going to work on improving my listening generosity in 2013.

I think it's also often possible to fail to listen generously to God's voice and God's plan. This means, we often are so busy "processing" what we think is the message we are receiving, that we are not open to truly hearing and following God's intended path for us. .I read a quote that sums this up:

 

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Help me listen with openess to hear God's plan. Help me to not find a path I want and try to convalute the message to suit my agenda.

This runs right into related concept I have always loved which is the idea that thoughts are creative. Any thought is a created reality, a homemade tale. We cannot truly think without it being a creative act. We cannot actually hear without it passing through the obscuring and judgelmental scrim of our mind's eye. We can merely choose to focus on the person speaking and to practice taking in what we hear without making a judgement on it. Just laying the meaning bare and letting what we hear stand on its own integrity.

Part of my "living in the moment" for 2013 will involve reserving judgement, listening generously, acknowledging that there exists a plan bigger than my creative thoughts and wants.

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