You Hear Me But . . .
Do you listen to my heart?
From an old journal recently rediscovered . . .
I can tell by your face whether you hear my words only, or are listening to my heart. You may hear me when your thoughts drift to business or play, but you listen when my words are as water to you when you are dry and fuzzy tongued.
Listen as a skilled lip-reader, when even a blink will cause you to miss an important word, and I'll slice my soul open for you.
But, offer me solutions, and I know you have only heard.
Move your face in harmony with my thoughts, and we have touched. Glance through the mail, catch up on the day's headlines, mentally work on your next project, then you have built a stone wall between us where contact is impossible.
Keep your eyes on mine, and your hands in mine, and we will dance together to music others can never hear.
I wrote this about 35 years ago. I think fully gaining the attention of another human being has become even more difficult than it was then. More than that, I’m sadly aware of how rarely I give others my absolute full attention—the tempting distractions never end. Often, I give in to them rather than the person in front of me.
Listening, especially as I describe it here, is hard, hard work. And yes, the marriage I was in when I wrote this piece ended a few years later.
How different might the world be if we all developed the art of listening . . .
This describes the early years of my marriage, but, somehow we muddled through the rough times, and on the 29th of this month we will celebrate our 68th anniversary! I truly can hardly believe we soon will have been married 68 years! I was just 20 years old when we married. Zack was 21, soon to be 22. He had just graduated from Baylor. I had to go to summer school following our May wedding in order to complete my B.A. degree from Baylor. There would be many tough times through the years, but, as I said, we managed to hang in there. If anyone tells me they've had a perfect marriage, I think, "They're lying!" But, on the brink of our 68th anniversary, I can say that I'm so glad we "hung in there"! We will celebrate by dining at our favorite restaurant, Guiseppe's Italian Restaurant in Denton. We will celebrate our marriage and be grateful for God's many blessings!
❤️