Listening

Are you a good listener?  I know that I am better at it than I was before, but I'm still not the listener I wish I was.  I am constantly working on my listening skills.  It is hard for me to keep from responding.  It is hard for me to wait until a question is being asked of me.  It is hard for me to listen to the other person, instead of thinking about what I'm going to say when I get the chance.

Even though, at times, I am a terrible listener, it's hard to believe that I am sooo much better at it than I was five or ten years ago and much better than I was when I was before my thirtieth birthday.  For me, as I grow, through hardships like: divorce, relocation, deaths, birth, fires, more death, weddings, more births, I become more patient with others.  I become more willing to listen to them.  I see less of me and more of them.  That is how to become a better listener.  Me<Listen>Them