Finding beauty in the stark landscape
It’s February. That’s means it’s the month of love… and Black History… and Ground Hog Day… and National Homemade Soup Day (yup, apparently that’s real and Feb 4th.)
It’s also been a heck of a month politically. If you haven’t noticed, we had a presidential election here in the USA, and it’s been a doozy. There were a few people gathered in January to raise their voices in protest and a few to celebrate the changing of the guard. And really, if you haven’t noticed, I’m hoping it’s because you just woke from a long coma or arrived home from a reclusive trek through Nepal.
Life has been disrupted and it’s not particularly friendly. We have sides now. Yes, I know, we’ve always had “sides,” but it feels more dramatically polarized now than it has been in my lifetime. Sides are taken and even the news sources are lumped into “this side or that.” People are dropping people from their lives because they don’t share the same political views. There is name calling.
Does this sound familiar?
This separation, this polarization and division, doesn’t help anything.
Here’s the bottom line: Making someone else wrong doesn’t make you right.
It is more important than ever that we just listen to each other for the sake of listening. Don’t have a goal to win the argument, or sway someone’s opinion, but instead to have understanding, and connection. Connection IS NOT agreement, it is simply connection at a human level.
If you listen more than you talk and others will want to listen to you more.
Have a conversation today. Just be kind, and curious, and listen – even if you agree – and see how it goes. Because you know what? It’s the month of love…