“You just dont listen”
I’m sure we’ve all heard this statement in our lives. What I’ve come to realize in the past few days of my commute is that we are always listening. My headphones are on 90% of the time I’m commuting, and when I look up from my phone I see blocked ears everywhere. We’re always listening to something. Music, a podcast, a video on Instagram. This something always playing in the background.
I find it increasingly interesting that we’re always listening, but we also are unable to listen. Weird isn’t it?, you’d think we’d be pros. We’re excellent at deciphering a lyric from our favourite artist, we excel at sharing videos that we think our friends would find funny, but we don’t listen to the words of those nearest and dearest to us. We tend to respond to them with a fiery passion, unnerved by the idea that we didn’t hear the other person at all. There is always a response, but what exactly are we responding to?
It’s become clear to me that we are often not responding to the person in front of us, rather we are responding to the emotion that is coming up within us. We become slaves to our emotions. We do what they tell us to do, we act upon whatever they think is right and we mistake those actions as decisiveness, when really it may be a a beautifully decorated impulse.
We’re listening more than ever, but no one feels heard. We have more money than ever before but everyone feels poor. We are in the most populous time, but so many people feel alone. We have more clothes than we’ve ever had, but we’re always buying more. Nothing seems to be enough. Not because there isn’t enough, but because we don’t think WE are enough. Gratitude.
Surah Ibrahim, Ayah 7.
Indeed if you are grateful, I will surely increase you (in favour).
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