I was reminded the other day of an experience in the Netherlands visiting the former home of Rembrandt.  I was mesmerized by his sketches; minimal fluid lines that caught the essence of the object he was drawing.  Such skill is awe...

I’ve argued for years that listening begins with the self; I’m not retracting that, but what I’ve come more recently to understand is that the self is a complex of many different expressions that manifest in our self-talk despite one characteristic may be overbearing,...

Most often we notice the importance of listening in its absence! I’ve learned a good deal about listening by neglecting to.  Unfortunately that’s how I’ve learned its value. I’ve argued in my listening class for years that we do not value listening in American...

A few of you may have read a bit of this content posted elsewhere sometime ago (on FB 2013) while I was still teaching at Boise State (my last semester was fall of 2015). In spite of my retirement status, now that it’s fall 2017 I can’t suppress the feeling – that I’d...

In the interest of elucidating active aspects of listening processes (interpreting, evaluating - etc.), I, along with many academics, have neglected the aspect of silence. There were obvious reasons for dispelling the idea that listening meant being silent; this...

I wonder about the capacity for openness and intimacy when listening.  Though I’ve defined listening as the desire to be intimately present to the meaning of another, I readily admit this seems a rare occurrence.  A significant factor is the impediment of will, i.e.,...

“The greatest secrets of our being are hidden from us, however: they lie in the secrecy of our depths.” Gaston Bachelard in Earth and Reveries of Repose: An Essay on Images of Interiority In recent months my focus has been to better understand how imagination assists...

Try listening to another in a way that Rumi describes below — see if indeed their meanings essences are unleashed — as Bachelard reminds us “An ear that is intent is trying to see.” “Day before yesterday, fire whispered to the fragrant smoke, Aloes wood loves me,...

“There is no country in the world where the Christian religion retains a greater influence over the souls of men than America.” (Democracy in America Alexis de Tocqueville) Jonathan Sacks, referencing Tocqueville, points out that Tocqueville was perplexed by the fact...

I am taken with the ambiguity listeners must navigate in everyday ordinary speech acts (read every conversation).  The point of listening is often to ‘settle’ something — I find that’s when I become pretty ‘serious’ as a listener.  Were that it were easy; that my...

Dear friends, Next Monday in the Netherlands a listening marathon will start for a week at the broadcaster 'Human' on the radio. People will listen to stories from known and unknown Dutch people for a week. Who are they, how do they think, what do they feel? On...