Are you Listening?

As many of you know, I have recently acquired a deck of Oracle Cards, which I have enjoyed using on a daily basis.  I typically do a three card spread, which answers my question of the day with Past, Present, and Future information.  A few days ago, I got the "Listening" card for my future point of vantage. I had never seen this one before, so I paid close attention to what it said.  The basic message was, "Stop talking and start listening."

Many of us are living our lives in a cycle of "waiting for other people to stop talking"so that we can start.  When was the last time you just sat and listened to a friend, not offering any advice, but just letting them say what they need to say?  Sharing our life experiences is important, but there is a point where you may need to evaluate if you are doing it for yourself, or others.  I have found that many times, when I am impatient to "tell everyone my story", it is out of that old place of Ego, where I have tried to move out of for quite some time now.  Feeling defensive is also good old Ego raising it's ugly head.  Whenever I feel the need to defend myself, I ask, "Why?"  There is a fine line between setting boundaries and defending yourself.  Boundaries are set out of love for yourself, and the latter is simply needing to be "right" or "vindicated," and that is not something to be pursued.  We can't ever win that battle, because there will always be someone else who also needs to be "right" and there you go on the merry go round of Ego.

Yesterday I sat with a friend and listened to her talk about her ex husband and how she really wanted to get him out of her life.  As I shared my thoughts, she became annoyed with me, and I saw that "listening" card in my mind.  I realized that I need to retreat and let her find her own path.  It is not my place to heal everyone, people need to learn their own lessons, and even though it is hard to watch someone continue in a hurtful cycle, have we not all done that at one point in our lives? I spent a good 30 years there, and I gained a lot of wisdom, but also, compassion.  Perhaps this next phase of my life I need to shut up and let other people talk.  Because we are all in this together, and I do not want to impede anyone's progress, or get in the way of anyone's lessons, or life's path.  We are all exactly where we need to be in order to learn what we need to learn.

After all, talking is only thinking out loud, is it not?  Sending you all love and blessings on this beautiful day xxxxxx