listen.

Growing up, I wasn't a very good listener. It's probably what inspired me to talk for a living. Because I talked. A lot.

I remember when my Sunday School teacher told us that God had given us two ears and one mouth so that we would listen twice as much as we talk. I think she might have been right.

My grandmother told me the other day:
...Everything that she cooked for Christmas dinner
...What everyone else brought for dinner
...How much was leftover
...What she did with the leftovers
...How she made the leftovers
...And that this "pizza thing"... it's really catching on.

My 6th grade girls have told me:
...About this boy that is SO cute
...About her teacher and how she hates her
...The times she has gotten in trouble for what she was wearing
...Stuff that happened on family vacation
...About her lizard
...The coolest places she has Tebow-ed
...That her parents told her once they wish she'd never been born
...That social services could be coming tomorrow
...That her mom was in a surgery that went fine, but scared her a lot

They don't want advice.
They don't even really need me to be able to relate.
They just need to get it out there so that they can be heard.
We all want to be heard.

In a world of so much social networking and communication, what all of these kids, my grandmother, my friends and all of us want is for someone to listen to us. To hear how our day went. To vent frustrations. To share ridiculous stories.

I might still not be a very good listener. But I want to be. Because ... well, there are a lot of people in my life who have way better stories than I do.