Just Listen

 

When I ask you to listen to me and you start to give me advice, you have not done what I have asked.

When I ask you to listen to me and you begin to tell me why I should not feel that way, you are trampling my feelings.

When I ask you to listen to me and you feel you have to do something to solve my problem, you have failed me, strange as that may seem.

Listen! All I asked was that you listen, not talk or do – just hear me.

I can do it for myself: I am not helpless – maybe discouraged and faltering, but not helpless.

When you do something for me that I can and need to do for myself, you contribute to my fear and inadequacy.

Don’t.

Just listen.