Listen To
Reading!
When I
was a little bitty kiddy, about five, my Dad began a process … anytime somebody
came and said something to us, my dad would say, "You remember what he
said, honey girl?” I would tell my father what the person said until I
got so good at it that I could repeat verbatim even long presentations of what
the person had said.
And he
did this all the time.
Finally,
one day there was this old gentleman, Richard Thompson. I still remember his
name, he lived across the street. And every time my Dad started to mow
the lawn, there came Mr. Thompson. And so I would stand out there.
Dad says,
“You might come and listen to this man, honey girl. He’s pretty
interesting.” And so I listened to him, and then my dad would say, “What
did you hear him say?” And I would tell him.
Well,
eventually I was repeating all the stories he liked to share with my dad
verbatim. I knew them all by heart.
And my
Dad says, “You’re getting pretty good at that. But did you hear his
heart?" And I thought, what? So I went around for days with my
ear to people's chest trying to hear their hearts.
Finally
my Dad created another learning situation for me by asking my mother to read an
article from the newspaper. He says “Well, I guess if you want to
understand that article, you have to read between the lines."
I
thought, "Oh, read between the lines. Hear between the words."
So the
next time I listened to Mr. Thompson’s stories, I tried to listen between the
words. My Dad said, “I know you know his story, but did you hear his
heart?” And I said, "Yes. He is very lonely and comes and shares his
memories with you again and again because he’s asking you to keep him company
in his memories."
It just
came out of me. In other words, my heart echoed his heart.
And when
you can listen at that level, then you can hear not only the people. If you
really pay attention, you can hear what the Universe is saying.
--Paula
Underwood, clan mother of the Turtle clan, Iroquois nation
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FORTHE MOUTH SPEAKS WHAT FILLS IN THE HEART
