My son, Michael often points out to me that I keep interrupting him when he speaks to me.  In fact it’s an every day occurrence. What I tell him is that when I die, I will leave him one thing in my will and that will be the ability to no longer be interrupted.   

I now have the following article I found in a newspaper, hanging on my refrigerator. I find that  many people concentrate on things they are good at as a mantra instead of the ones they are NOT good at. So here is the article I happened to run across.  I feel it was written especially for me.  

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 that you listen to me, and you 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 problems, you have failed me, strange as that may seem.

Listen; all that I ask is that you listen. Not talk or do ------- just hear me. When you do something for me that I need to do for myself, you contribute to my feelings of fear and inadequacy.

But when you accept as a simple fact that I do feel what I feel, no matter how irrational, then I can quit trying to convince you and go about the business of understanding what’s behind my feelings. So please listen and just hear me and if you want to talk, wait a minute for your turn --- and I’ll listen to you.

     To all of my readers, please don’t ask just yet how I’m doing with these guidelines because it’s going to take me awhile to improve on something that I’ve been in the habit of doing for a long time.  

I hope to achieve this before I reach 100, and then I can leave Michael something else in my will.