Listen to the People Who Have Been Unheard

This January, I’ve resumed walks around my Ann Arbor neighborhood to  exercise and to "clear my head."  I’ve made the time to listen more, to receive what my environment is telling me. A walkabout can be a form of meditation, especially if one refrains from listening to music or to the latest podcast or news feed.

That’s been a good thing personally. I expect it would be smart for everybody to do. 

Yard signs abound with messages as varied as, "Thanks to Essential Workers" or "Save Our Postal Service” or  "Hail to the Victors" or  "A Ford School Graduate Lives Here".

Earlier this month, one simple yard sign  message struck me hard, "LISTEN TO THE PEOPLE WHO HAVE BEEN UNHEARD."

This sign opened a door in my mind and heart that I've pondered ever since.  I began to think about all the people in all walks of life throughout human history that have been UNHEARD.

Then I thought about people in my own life who have not been heard.

This admonishment has powerful implications if it were actually heeded. 

Imagine if you and I would actually LISTEN to the people in our own circle of life who have been unheard:

........A child

........A spouse

........A neighbor

........A poor person

........A person of a different ethnic background

........A person with opposite political perspectives from our own

........A person from another country

.........A person of color

.........A person embodied within our own soul/our inner 'voice'

Listening requires focus. One must  be  quiet long enough to actually hear what is being said both verbally and non verbally. That's the action step that many of us find particularly challenging. 

We're so anxious to respond, or to solve a problem, or to offer our own take that we  are not quiet long enough to:

 ....take in what another person  is actually saying

.... find out what our own inner voice might me telling us.

Beyond the personal level, imagine what would happen in our world at large if the people on the margins of  society began to be heard by the rest of us.

What would it mean to actually be quiet long enough to allow these marginalized voices to be heard, to be listened to?.....To breathe in the words and understand the full meaning of the words and /or the body language associated with those words.

How many misunderstandings would be eliminated?

How many family conflicts would be resolved?

How many wars would be prevented?

How many  neighborhood disputes would be avoided?

Perhaps this nation would begin to coalesce around what unites us as citizens , rather than continue to be divided by class, race, religion, or political position.

Maybe talking is overrated.

And listening is more important.