A new school year is like a new year–I can’t help making resolutions. I would like to bring the calm I achieve by this point in summer into the first week back. I want to keep these two quotes in my mind (and heart).
“The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing, not curing, not healing, who can face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who cares.” Henri Nouwen
The Dalai Lama said, “When you talk, you are only repeating what you already know. But if you listen, you may learn something new.”
There is power in just being with a person. There is certainly power in listening. There is power in not taking over another person’s narrative with our own stories or ideas for fixing their concern. If we can stop our own story, if we can stop defensiveness and just listen, we gain insights into how to work with a person with from different backgrounds, skin color, languages, economic class….
To offer this kind of presence to another, it helps if we have had someone do that for us so we know in our bones how helpful it can be.