While listening to the morning news (last Wednesday) a story was shared about a man falling off his fishing boat into the cold pacific ocean at the Santa Barbara Channel.
It was the middle of the night and Scott Tompson thought this is the way he will end his life.
What helped him survive a five hour swim was a friendly seal that showed up and with his kind eyes helped him to find strength and comfort and swim to safety.
When around animals you can feel their souls and their deep intuitive understanding of how we are. Words are not needed as it is the language
of the heart.
This brought to mind the short story “Misery” by Anton Chekhov.
A story about a sledge-driver who after loosing his son tried to share with his passengers the way he was feeling, share his grief, his despair but no one payed attention to him. Out of despair the old man talks to his horse and the horse listens….
I was in California, visiting family and friends for a weekend. Instead of Happy Hour practice on Friday I met few yogis of the Bay and shared with them the words of Rabbi Sacks about the art of listening:
“ What an underrated art listening is. Sometimes it is the greatest gift we can give to a troubled soul. It is an act of focused attention. It means being genuinely open to another person, prepared to enter their world, their perspective, their pain. It does not mean that we have a solution to their problem. There are some problems that cannot be solved. They can only be lived through, so that time itself heals the rupture or loss. When we listen, we share the burden so that its weight can be borne. There are times when friendship calls simply for a human presence, a listening ear and an understanding heart, so that soul can unburden itself to soul”