This is one of my favorite essays from the NPR show “This I Believe” entitled Listening is Powerful Medicine.  It reminds me of what a gift listening can be and how hard it is sometimes to just be present and let someone’s tale unfold. We need more people in our lives to say, as the old woman does in this piece, “Sit down… This is my story, not your story.”

When we interrupt or stir restlessly in our seats, we are taking our attention from our subject’s story and focusing on our own. We think we are just helping them along by filling in a forgotten word or asking them to jump ahead. “Cut to the chase”, I find myself thinking. But we are denying our subjects our full presence, our undivided attention.  And our desire and ability to be fully aware and present because our gift to the story teller.