Listen

Shhhh.

Listen.

Really.

Take a moment and just listen to what's happening around you. What do you hear?

It can be hard to just listen, whether to your environment, to a selected sound such as music, to ourselves, or to another person. We're so accustomed to our own running monologues or to filling our environments with other sounds that when we take the time to just listen, it can be a little overwhelming. Yet this experience can lead to a transcendental moment, to deeper understanding of another person or our own self.

In the last few months, when I haven't been writing, I've been listening. I've been listening to other people. I've been listening to a lot of music. And I've been listening to myself again, by writing in my journal. I've also been thinking about listening and the universe is tossing more stuff to me about listening in the shape of books and websites and random conversations. So I think I want to spend the next few posts writing about listening.

You already know I'm a storyteller, that I create my own works of fiction and non-fiction and perform them in front of adult audiences. Well, good storytelling comes out of listening to the audience. More than that, it comes out of being listened to deeply prior to the performance. More than that, it comes out of listening to the world around you to find those kernels that become stories in the first place. Storytelling is an act of listening.

If storytelling is my life's work, as I believe it to be, then listening is also my life's work. Helping others learn how to listen and understand the impact of deep listening is part of that work.

That being said, I'll stop here. There's too much in my head, too much I want to cover for one post. I'll be back soon.

For now though -

Listen. Don't interrupt. What do you hear?

(c) 2008 Laura S Packer