Ray of Sunshine: Beautiful Music

Listen to the song of your heart. Bless others with its beautiful music.

Blessings for your day and week. Spread sunshine. Be the light.

Sunday Sunshine: Pay Attention

You have the capacity to be a peacemaker. We need peacemakers in our world.

You are a peacemaker when you seek to better understand another person’s perspective, listen with your full attention, consider your response carefully, measure your words and show respect.

It doesn’t mean that you have to be in full agreement with the other person, but it does mean that you honor the light in that individual and you give him or her the respect to hold his or her own opinions, even if they are different from yours.

Doing so can help you look through the clutter and distraction of differences in order to find the light of common ground. That light will help you forge a path through differences to a place of compromise and respect.

Listen carefully and openly to hear another perspective. Respect a way of thinking that is different from yours. Be slow to judge. Seek to understand.

Today, this week: Pay attention. Listen. Be a peacemaker.

Sunday Sunshine: Listen with your Heart

We're constantly told that we're a divided country. The messaging we receive all around us seems to encourage that division rather than unity.

Divisions fade away when you actively listen with not only your ears, but also your heart. 

You become new when you open yourself to new perspectives.

What might you learn about yourself and others if you listened with your whole being? 

What might you learn about yourself and others if you listened with your heart? 

Our minds put all kinds of filters in front of us through which we tend to absorb new information. As our minds construct and reinforce those filters based on memory and judgment, we can lose grasp on opportunities right in front of us for greater understanding and loving responses. 

When you listen with your heart, the lens through which you feel the world becomes one of love.

Today, this week: Listen with your heart.

Fresh Thoughts for Your Monday: Be Strong. Be True to Yourself.

It isn’t always easy. The pressure to conform, to remain silent, to go along with things that don’t feel right to you is strong.

But you have an option. You can be strong. You can be brave. You can be true to yourself and your values.  That wisdom that you carry deep inside of you is real and shouldn’t be ignored or squelched.

The truth that you feel deeply and viscerally is important to acknowledge. The words you have to say are important. Give voice to them.

Today, this week: Be strong. Be true to yourself. Listen to the wise voice deep inside of you. What is it telling you?

Hark!

On Christmas Eve, my good friend Charlene and I are scheduled to sing an a cappella duet at church, called "Hark, Now, O Shepherds," an old Czechoslovakian carol.  I am of Bohemian descent, so the choice of our music felt just right to me.  A couple of weeks ago, Larry and I attended a concert of Christmas music presented by the Madison Brass Band.  They called their concert "Hark."  The word "hark" keeps coming into my sights of late, whether singing "Hark the Herald Angels Sing," holding the Madison Brass Band's concert program in my hand or sharing in an a cappella duet with Charlene.  I sense that there is a message in all of it for me.  According to Merriam-Webster's online dictionary, "hark" means "to pay close attention" and "to listen."  Each day, I wrestle with the messages constantly bombarding my mind, the gotta-dos and the wish-I-hads, but a quiet mind during these last couple of days before Christmas is of increasing importance to me.  Hark! It's time for me to pay close attention and listen.  

Sound-Bitten

We have sadly become a world of sound bites.  If you can't say something brilliant in as few words as possible, we no longer want to listen.  While watching Bill Moyers on PBS the other night, I was grateful for his ability to ask a question and then sit back and listen with his full attention.  He made eye contact: Not once did he appear to be looking at his notes to prepare for the next question.  He didn't fidget: Not once did he interrupt the other person.  He didn't grow restless:  Not once did he interject a sound or word that would tell the person being interviewed to wrap it up.  Mr. Moyers' listening behavior seems to be the exception instead of the rule in today's media world, and, unfortunately, in real life, too.  I have witnessed real-life situations where people expect others to speak in sound bites, as if to say, "Hurry up, make your point, move on because I'm too busy to listen."  We can all hone our listening skills so that we honor the other person and what he or she is saying.  Communication is not sound bites.  It is the elegant dance of talking and listening, honoring the intimate process of sharing thoughts and information.