Two Ears and One Mouth: Why We Should Listen More Than We Talk
When we’re in trouble or suffering, having someone truly listen to us, even if they can’t offer a solution, can be a great comfort. But…
When we’re in trouble or suffering, having someone truly listen to us, even if they can’t offer a solution, can be a great comfort. But…
I like to talk. My idea of a good night with friends is lounging in one of our living rooms with a glass of wine…
Angry eyes stare at me as the woman yanks a shopping cart from my hands. “I got it first,” she says and storms away. I…
A few years ago, I was rushing to catch the Staten Island Ferry. Missing the ferry could mean a 30- or 60-minute wait for the…
My relatives are an eclectic bunch, pretty evenly split — to use crude and somewhat useless political labels — between Left and Right; our religious diversity includes Catholics, Mormons, evangelicals, United Church of Christ members and a few who are unaffiliated. Throw in my surrogate family (that’s a story for another time) and you add Presbyterians, Jews and Buddhists. As we gather around our family table and share letters and cards this holiday season, I will be looking for opportunities to be a healing force.
My family is like millions of others in the United States who come together this time of year for the holidays and struggle to put their passionate differences aside for a few hours. Of course, these divides always existed, but recent years have been different for two reasons. First, major shifts — generationally and ideologically — have left many feeling left out of the party, so to speak. Second, politics is the ugliest it’s been in modern history. There are plenty of hurt feelings all around. A lot of fear gets stirred up.
In couples counseling, it’s an axiom that the most toxic thing to a relationship is not when the partners disagree, or even fight, but when they stop respecting each other. For several generations now, there has been little trust and respect in the political sphere. Both sides have demonized the other, have assumed ill motives on their opponents’ parts.
But of all relationships, the deepest and oldest, next to our relationship with God, is family. So, how sad when distrust and lack of respect attacks relationships with literal brothers and sisters.
Hollywood families (at least in their writers’ imagination) seem to have warm and fuzzy family Christmas dinners. Mine are more complex. Somehow, the relative morality…
Friday of the Twenty-Eighth Week in Ordinary Time. Although we may think that we have secrets, or can do things in secret – God knows…
Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time. How does the story of Jesus walking on water relate to how people sometimes talk too loudly on their cell…
At what age are we supposed to receive everything we’ve ever dreamt of? Not 25 — I’ll tell you that. But for some reason, many of us at this age feel like we are supposed to be at a certain place in life. For many of us, we are gravely disappointed when 26 shows up.
If you haven’t heard, Oprah is no longer on the air 4 p.m. EST on ABC. Her 25 years came to an end the same time mine did. I would be lying to say I didn’t cry during her last episode…
FAST from unnecessary conversation today. PRAY to hear God in the silence. GIVE time today to listen to someone who needs a friendly ear.