Listening to the Song – Part 1

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Listening is our gateway to intimacy with our inner life, each other, our earth and spirit. These two talks look at the ways that listening gets blocked and the teachings and practices that help us cultivate the gift of a deep and healing listening presence.

To listen is to lean in softly with a willingness to be changed by what we hear.
~ Mark Nepo

Choose one low hanging leaf
Heart-shaped
Still attached to Mother Birch
and listen to all it has to say.
The sound its slender veins make turning light to sugar.
The exaltation of wind.
Water sipped through straws of branches of the roots.
How it and its sisters communicate with birds
and how it refracts the sun in your eyes
searching for the right thing to say and when.
The queue will be obvious when it’s your turn to speak
It’s palm will fall upon yours face down.
Blind sentences touching the breath of your hand
then whispering the language that green understands.

Birch ~ by Ann Emerson

Enjoy the meditation given before the talk:
The Silence that is Listening

Other resources on Listening here.

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