Charissa Rubey, Cayuga

Has anyone else noticed that it’s harder to listen these days? Harder to have the patience and grace to hold your tongue and allow another person to share their thoughts and feelings?

It seems like we all are walking time bombs, just waiting for another warm body to come along for us to vomit word salad all over them. Maybe it’s the months of being separated from beating hearts that are outside of our family bubbles. Maybe it is a presidential election that has more vitriol, bile and anger than I ever imagined could possibly exist in our country. Maybe it’s the protest that spill over into heart wrenching riots, further making us withdraw into ourselves.

I think it’s everything, all put together, in a big sludgy mess of awfulness that we are all just wading through, trying to just get one foot out. And the feelings we all have are so overwhelming, we just can’t help but want to reach out and find some comfort, a nodding head; a little smile that says “YES I hear you!” We are all wanting to be heard, and unfortunately, I feel like along with many others, I’m finding it hard to be the listener. The patient nodding head that so many of us need.

So, with that, I’m going to try, every day, to be the listener at least once; to be the one who is the little smile that says “YES, I hear you!” Yes, YES…I HEAR YOU.