It's strange to me that I've never read the works of Terry Tempest Williams, and yet, here I am; apparently now is when her words speak to me … and I listen.
I recently listened to her interview in 2011 by Krista Tippett at OnBeing and wanted to share this quote (from the unedited version):
"If we can ask ourselves the question, then we are going to move toward the answer. And that's where, for me, it really is about listening, and being curious, and speaking [listening] from our umbilicus, not our mind, and sometimes not even our heart because that's where it gets so emotional that we *can't* hear one another. But if I'm listening to you with my hand on my belly, you know, of where I was first connected to breath which was my mother, you know, then I really can sit in the seat of presence and hear what you are saying, not what I want to say to you, but to really listen and to find that point of humanity, that connective truth."
Her reference to speaking and listening from our umbilicus really touched me.
I had never heard of Williams but that quote speaks to me too. It makes sense to listen from the umbilicus to hear what is actually being said rather than relying on the mind's or heart's interpretations.
ReplyDeleteIt does make sense, doesn't it? So often we're encouraged to let our heart do the listening, forgetting that our emotions can blind us, too.
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