Chapter 5 of The Heart of Sacred Listening
From the bottom of my heart, welcome to the pre-release of my book The Heart of Sacred Listening The Key to Transforming Your Relationships, Your Work, and Your Life. If you’re new here, visit the Table of Contents to catch up on previous chapters.
I am so happy you are joining me in reading my new book, thus far. As you might be able to tell, I am very excited about it and the process of writing and revising it. Some people have been beta (first) readers and have given me excellent feedback, which I will be incorporating over the summer. Endorsements, as well, have begun to come. Here are a couple of them.
“In this book, Amba Gale describes her own arduous journey towards learning “The Art of Sacred Listening”. Thereby, she proves two points: 1- That Biography is a most convincing tool for teaching. 2 - That listening with the heart is indeed a sacred art worth acquiring.”
—Brother David Steind-Rast, Benedictine monk, author.
Chapter 5
Files: Take off Your Dark Glasses
“There are three great mysteries in life: Air to a bird, water to a fish, and man to himself.”
—an old, Hindu riddle
What makes water a mystery to a fish?
If you take a pause and think about it, you will see that what makes water a mystery to a fish is the fish doesn’t know it’s swimming in water. For the fish to know it’s swimming in water, what must happen?
That’s right: take the fish out of the water!
So, now we are going to take ourselves out of our own water.
Imagine this scenario –
It’s your first day at your new workplace. You are excited. You’ve gone through the interview process. You like the culture of the company, you like the people, you like the values, and you are looking forward to being a participative and enthusiastic member of this company. You can hardly wait to meet the people you will be working with, hopefully, for a long, long time.
You are warmly greeted by people who shake your hand and welcome you all morning.
Then, something surprising happens. It’s around 11:00 am. Someone is coming toward you with their head down, moving quickly. Unlike most other people, who have had their hand extended for a greeting, this person, let’s call her Sarah, doesn’t even look up. She just walks on by without even acknowledging your presence.
Unbeknownst to you, Sarah’s boss just informed her that she must cancel a vacation for next week that she was counting on having with her family. Sarah is not only unhappy; she is also upset and angry.
So, Sarah passes you without saying hello.
What do you do?