I Hear You

AFTER TRULY LISTENING for a while, we learn that every party to a conflict is suffering, that every act of violence comes from an unhealed wound. We learn to stretch our capacity to be present to another's pain, to affirm their humanity at the deepest level.

It is easy to listen to people with whom we agree. It's when we listen to those with whom we disagree that listening becomes a challenge. It is no simple thing to do this. It calls for seeing through any masks of fear or hostility to the sacredness of each individual. Sometimes we listeners must dig deep within ourselves to move beyond our judgments and opinions.

When we compassionately tune into others, victim and victimizer, rich and poor, empowered and disempowered are unimaginably interconnected. We find that love cracks our hearts open; it tells exactly what this broken world needs from us.

I must continually ask myself if I can hear the heartbreak of my fellow prisoners. Do I hear the sounds of the prayers at night? Do I hear their cries of loneliness and abandonment? Do I hear them when they silently exclaim, "Here I am - this is me in my nakedness, with my wounds, my secret grief, my despair, my pain, which I cannot express, my abandonment? Oh, listen to me for a day, an hour, a moment, lest I expire in my wilderness, my lonely silence. Is there no one to listen?" Isn't it the cry of everyone's heart to hear someone say, "Yes, I hear you. I feel what you're feeling. I understand."

In listening to others, this is what I have learned: within sorrow, there is grace. When we come close to those things that break us down, we touch those things that also break us open. And in that breaking open, we uncover our true nature.

Healing Our Hurt

THE NEWS TODAY is filled with accounts of terror and violence. Nothing gets our attention quite like loss and tragedy. Hurt stretches us, pushes us to grow, to develop new levels of ourselves. We have many lessons to learn in life, and each one is generally punctuated with an experience of pain.

What we find, however, as we look deeper within, is that our rage, our fears, do not stay forever. Rage turns into sorrow, sorrow turns into tears; tears may fall for a long time, but then the sun comes out. The armoring around our pain gradually softens, and in the midst of our grieving, the pain finally finds release.

It is at this point that we discover that our hearts can grow strong in the broken places. We find a way in which sorrow can heal, allowing us to grow into our fullest, most compassionate identity, our greatness of heart.

In our issue-oriented world, we think the enemy is outside, and we must struggle against those who are outside our group, our party. When we seek to strike back and blame, we distract ourselves from an exquisite opportunity to pay attention, to see, even in the pain, a place of grace, a moment of spiritual promise and healing.

Finally, there is the realization that the warfare is inside, not just inside the "others," but inside me. Warfare is also in me, and I am called to seek wholeness inside myself and be an agent for peace. If I am growing toward wholeness, I will be a source of life for the world around me.

May each of us remember this: God's understanding, forgiveness, compassion, love, and purpose are large enough to include the most heinous terrorists and their acts. Perhaps a deeper understanding of this is what we came here to discover.

© 2001-08, Tom Brown

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Charles "Tom" Brown was a successful investor who did very well in real estate, oil, and the stock market. Friends began asking him to invest for them, too. And he did. Things went well, and more people heard about his abilities and wanted to be included in the investment strategies he had devised. All went well until there was a dramatic change in the market. All that went up turned down, and Tom wanted everyone to still have a profit - his big mistake - as he wanted to be well thought of. Tom was accused of defrauding investors. Although it was shown that he had never diverted any money for himself other than a modest commission, through unbelievable mishandling by an incompetent or dishonest attorney, what should have been a one-year sentence became a 17-year sentence. At the time of judgment, Tom was 62 years of age.

The purpose of Tom's blog is not to dwell on the injustice, but rather, to show the incredible unfoldment of consciousness in a man who has taken this sentence and created a workshop of Soul and Spirit out of it. His words are designed to help us see into life and do better with what we've been given. Tom's Beyond the Wall blog is located at www.Beyondthewall.blogs.com.  If you would like to write to Tom, he appreciates correspondence.  He does not have access to a computer but can be reached via Charles "Tom" Brown, # 140237, ASPC - Lewis, Barchey Blue - D2 - E5, P.O.Box 3200, Buckeye, AZ, 85326.