Listening and Understanding

[cedar_grove]

From The Book of Awakening: Having the Life You Want by Being Present to the Life You Have.

A mermaid found a swimming lad,
Picked him for her own.
Pressed her body to his body,
Laughed; and plunging down
Forgot in cruel happiness
That even lovers drown.
--William Butler Yeats

We want so badly to share our innermost experience with our loved ones, but often, like the mermaid, we forget that not everyone can go where we go.

I'm often told that I'm really confusing when I tell people things. To me, everything is perfectly clear in my own mind as to what I mean, because I was there, and I know what it's talking about, and it frustrates me that other people don't seem to be following, or get completely the wrong end of the stick, and then when we finally get to a point that they understand what I have meant, I get told that that's not what I said at all. I let it go – though the frustration lodges inside – what is the point in getting into a fight or cross words about such things. We understand one another in the end, right?

What really hurts though is that when the same thing happens the other way around, when I have misunderstood something, or not understood something, or not heard something or any of the other things that can get in the way of proper communication, I'm castigated for 'not listening.' I have listened, I have just not understood.

Comments

[mirrani.livejournal.com]

So between the two of us, we just have to work on a way to word things that aren't so immediately upsetting.