Seven Thousand Ways to Listen

“When we lose our map, our knowledge of the path begins.” Mark Nepo, Seven Thousands Ways to Listen

Simon & Shuster asked me to read Mark Nepo’s book on the many different ways to listen. His poetic, fluid writing captured me from page one onward. As a cancer survivor who struggled with hearing loss during the writing of this book, Nepo takes on an attitude of abundance and appreciation for his personal bank account of time.

He sees the world spinning too fast, but offers readers ways to slow down, contemplate and meditate upon what truly matters. In his view, listening is a skill that rarely requires words, but rather an introspection into ourselves and those around us.

Sometimes we need to turn off our GPS, toss out our map and take a trip guided only by our inner light. Like Nepo’s book suggests, listening is a fine art that many of us have either never learned or forgotten in our now-now-now existence. If you have ever been frustrated by a malfunctioning computer, a slow driver ahead of you or a gadget that just won’t do what you want, know that such expectations are rather new in the history of the human race. Try, try again is barely viewed as tolerable anymore. We want stuff to work. Period. Impatience is a virtue, it seems today. The fastest wins. But our bodies, our minds and our spirits don’t really work that way.

Take time to listen. Read Nepo’s book. You’ll be glad you did.

 

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