Blog #7 Learning To Listen

From the choices on the "This I Believe" website I decided to read an article about change. It was titled "Learning To Listen," and the author was Peggy, without a last name. I started out just browsing and had no such luck seeing anything that interested me. So I went to the themes and clicked change. I came across this writing and liked the title so I decided to read on. This was a narration/summary of Peggy and her life events which eventually made her become a good listener. She begins by saying that she grew up in a family where arguments and conflict at the table were necessary. Then as her life moved on she found it difficult to listen to people and to take in what they were actually saying. She could not put herself in their shoes. In attempts to cure herself of this attribute she took a trip to South Africa. There is where she helped with the AIDS pandemic and promised she would listen like no other. She listened for two strait months. She says in the article, " Had I not listened I would have missed the very faint 'I love you' of a young child." This was my favorite part because in the end she found that learning to listen ultimately improved her life and gave her the skills to be more open with people.