How to Listen

We’re conditioned in so many ways to approach difficulties—our own and each other’s—with a “fix it” mentality.  How to Listen from James A. Pearson is a beautiful call to consider a different way of being. When we meet one another not as problems to solve but as complete ecosystems where both mud and sunlight belong, something significant shifts. When someone truly sees us—all of us—without rushing to clean up our “muddy corners,” we experience what may be our deepest human need: belonging.

How to Listen by James A Pearson

I’m not asking you
to come down here
and clean out the muddy
corners of my life.

I’m asking you
to be a forest
where mud and leaves,
shadows and light,
growth and decay
all have their unquestioned
belonging.

I’m asking you
to be an ocean
where even great storms
don’t trouble the depths
and each tear is welcomed
as a homecoming.

I’m asking you
to be as spacious
as the vast darkness
behind the sky,
which will never be afraid
of what I do
or don’t choose.

I’m not asking you
to hold me together.
I’m asking you
to open so wide
there’s room for all the ways
I come apart.

Visit my classes page for offerings that explore how we can both show up with discernment and strengthen our witnessing presence. For more personalized support I invite you to check out my coaching packages. 

You can find more poetry from James A Pearson on his website.