When Someone Deeply Listens to You by John Fox

Summer, you started out beautifully...pink!

When Someone Deeply Listens To You
by John Fox

When someone deeply listens to you
it is like holding out a dented cup
you've had since childhood
and watching it fill up with
cold, fresh water.

When it balances on top of the brim,
you are understood.
When it overflows and touches your skin,
you are loved.

When someone deeply listens to you
the room where you stay
starts a new life
and the place where you wrote
your first poem
begins to glow in your mind's eye.
It is as if gold has been discovered.

When someone deeply listens to you
your barefeet are on the earth
and a beloved land that seemed distant
is now at home within you.

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When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives mean the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand. 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 and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who cares. ~Henri Nouwen

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This poem is for my new friend, Little Flower, who has one of the purest, kindest, most compassionate souls of anyone I've ever met.  In my time of deepest need, she was not only present with me, but also spoke beautiful, healing words to me and listens to me weekly, never judging me.  She is a survivor, a wounded healer and an angel.  

Do someone/anyone a favor this week and deeply listen to them.  It's life-changing to have someone listen to you with empathy and compassion, not interrupting or judging.  

Blessings and Peace, 
Marion

To Waiting by W. S. Merwin

I found this work of art at Pinterest.  I don't know who the artist is.  If you do, please let me know.  It's an amazing watercolor painting. Can't you just feel the breeze blowing that gauzy curtain?

To Waiting
by W. S. Merwin

You spend so much of your time
expecting to become
someone else
always someone
who will be different
someone to whom a moment
whatever moment it may be
at last has come
and who has been
met and transformed
into no longer being you
and so has forgotten you

meanwhile in your life
you hardly notice
the world around you
lights changing
sirens dying along the buildings
your eyes intent
on a sight you do not see yet
not yet there
as long as you
are only yourself

with whom as you
recall you were
never happy
to be left alone for long

from 'Present Company'

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I'm still on a summer reading binge.  Today I'm reading:

"Spring Fever" by Mary Kay Andrews;
"The Night Journal" by Elizabeth Crook;
"The Crooked Inheritance:  Poems" by Marge Piercy, and
"The Name of This Book is Secret" by Pseudomymous Bosch. 

(Why, yes, I do read several books at once...The last one is a children's book I'm reading before giving it to my granddaughter...she's in 3rd grade, and reads at 6th grade level, but I always read the books I send her so we can talk about them together). 

It's been raining almost every afternoon here in the swamps which makes for perfect reading weather and humidity so thick you can cut it with a butter knife.  My yard loves it as do my tomatoes and herbs.  Me, I'm staying close to the air conditioner, book in hand.

Any of you reading anything good?  Let me know if you are.  I'm always on the lookout for new authors/books. 

Happy reading!

xo,
Marion

"People say that life is the thing, but I prefer reading." ~Logan Pearsall Smith, Trivia, 1917