Is It Your Way, or the Highway?

I like to listen.  I have learned a great deal from listening carefully.  Most people never listen.  ~
Ernest Hemingway


I like to hear people tell their stories.  Especially elderly people .  The elderly have the best stories these days.  About the good old days you know.  Even though I know in my mind , that 75 years ago life wasn't necessarily any better, but it is the colored glasses through which they see it.  It is so much fun to see the world through those glasses for a time.  When I was younger, I had a real problem seeing something through someone else's eyes.  I usually had an opinion  of my own, and it was my way, or the highway.  If I was right, I was right, dadgum it, and there was no getting around it.  But , I have learned in the last 15 years or so, that I am not always right, (shocker!!)  , and that other people do have something interesting to say.  Now, I suppose listening is my favorite hobby.  Even if you don't agree with someone, or you can prove they are wrong, doesn't mean you should just talk over them.  God has funny ways of showing us new things sometimes.  It might be in a conversation with someone else.  If you are right, right, right, all the time, it is very difficult to learn anything new.  Sometimes it pays to just close our mouths, and listen.  I am still working on this every day!


God , give us wisdom and patience with others~  Ruby Jeanette