We Americans are good at talking. We revel in our right to share our ideas, positions, and opinions. Truth be known, it’s difficult for us to have an unexpressed thought.
What we are not good at, most of the time anyhow, is listening. Our habit is to hear only enough of what someone else is saying to formulate our own response. We avoid conflict by surrounding ourselves only with people and opinions we agree with, and we paint those who say things we don’t want to listen to as enemies at best and downright evil at worst.
The result of all of that is that we often talk past each other rather than with each other. Our dialogues just become multi-part monologues.
But what if we could be better listeners? Could it effect more than just our day-to-day conversations or civic discourse, but actually transform our neighborhoods and communities?
This Sunday at New Wineskins we’ll talk about the art of listening, how being better listeners can improve our relationships, and we’ll experiment with a couple of intentional listening practices through some exercises and guided meditations.
We hope you’ll join us this Sunday, Jan. 14, as we kick off 2018 with this important discussion around active listening. As always, we’ll meet in the 167 Side Room of the Marietta Brewing Company. Come and kick off the new year at New Wineskins!
Happy Half-Hour: 6:30pm
Conversation Begins: 7:00pm