Please Listen

 When I ask you to listen to me

and you start 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’t feel 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,

strange as that may seem.

Listen! All I ask is that you listen.

Don’t talk or do – just hear me…

And I can do 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.

But when you accept as a simple fact

That I feel what I feel,

No matter how irrational,

Then I can stop trying to convince

You and get about this business

Of understanding what’s behind

This irrational feeling.

And when that’s clear, the answers are obvious and I don’t need advice.

Irrational feelings make sense when

we understand what’s behind them.

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

~Author Unknown