please listen
when i asked you to listen to me
and you started giving me advice,
you have not done what i asked.
when i ask you to listen to me
and you begin to tell me why
i shouldn'tfell that way,
you are trampling on 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.
Listen! all i ask is that you listen.
don't talk or do-just hear me.
advice is cheap; 20 cents
will get you both in the same newspaper.
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 inadeuacy.
but when you accept as a simple fact
that i feel what i feel,
no matter how irrational,
then i can stop tring to convince
you and get about this business
of understanding what's behind this irraionl feeling.
and when that's c;ear,
the answers are
obvious and i don't need advice.
irrational feelings make sense when
we understand what's behind them.
perhaps that's why prayer works, sometimes,
for some people-because god is mute,
and he doesn't give advice or tyr
to fix things
god just listens and lets you work
it out for yourself.
so please listen, and just hear me.
and if you want to talk,
wait a minute
for your turn-and i will listen to you.