Welcome to the Friday Loose Bloggers Consortium where Akanksha, Anu, Ashok, Conrad, Delirious, gaelikaa, Grannymar, Magpie11, Maria the Silver Fox, Padmum , Will knot, and I write on the same topic. Please do visit the linked blogs to get twelve different flavours of the same topic. Today’s topic has been chosen by Grannymar.
I am not surprised that this topic has been chosen, by Grannymar. She is one of the greatest listeners that I have had the privilege of knowing. She has the knack of saying just the right thing at the right time to get the speaker to continue speaking. I wonder what she intends to write on this topic. She certainly does not need any advise about it.
I can’t hear the word Listen without immediately thinking about two things. I hardly get to hear that word anyway and so, it is not unusual that I think of the two things. I don’t hear that word because, I flatter myself that, I am also a good listener.
The first thing that comes to my mind is the very soothing song by Nina and Frederick from 1960. My generation music!
Nina & Frederick – 1960
There’s a world of sun and sand
Full of sky and far from land
Where evening breezes caress the shore
Like a gentle comforting hand
Fragrant blossoms, honey bees
Careless laughter upon the breeze
And lovers fading to pools of deep
Purple shadows among the trees
Listen to the ocean, echoes of a million seashells
Forever it’s in motion
Moving to a rhythmic and unwritten music
That’s played eternally
The sound of a seagull’s distant cry
His wings like parentheses drawn in the sky
And two white birds clinging like foam
To the crest of a wave rolling by
The silence of noon, the clamour of night
The heat of the day when the fish won’t bite
These are the things that remind me of
The day you sailed out of sight
Listen to the ocean, echoes of a million seashells
Forever it’s in motion
Moving to a rhythmic and unwritten music
That’s played eternally
If you would like to listen to it you can do so at http://youtu.be/HXeGhIJWG5I
The second thing that always comes to my mind is the name by which my late mother in law used to call my late father in law. It was “Listen!” For those of you who can’t figure out why on earth she would do so, let me explain. In those old days, Indian women did not call their husbands by their given names. In fact, even today, there are many homes where this is just not the done thing. Since the two of them came from two different linguistic backgrounds, and spoke to each other in English, this was a compromise solution.
I am sure that this saying which is very common in India must be so in the rest of the world too. God gave us two ears and only one tongue so that we can listen to twice as much as we speak. Do we follow this good advise? From the number of phone calls that I receive and do not speak much in response, I am afraid not. At least not most of my callers. I hope that at least some of them will read this post and learn to LISTEN more
and talk less.
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