One morning I was sitting with two elderly people married for the past four decades. The topic of discussion was how they both cope with the cold.

The man said he wears layers of clothes, basks in the sun, but sadly ended up basking a little too much the other day. But before he could finish his part of the story, the woman started telling hers. How she cleans the house all day, how there is no time to bask in the sun, and what wastage of time basking is anyway.

Sounds familiar?

To me, it is very familiar. It is quite common to not to hear the other person’s story and start your own.

An old habit of mine comes to mind. In an attempt to appear wise I used to speculate the words coming out of the speaker’s mouth. As a further rule of habit, I would blurt out what they might have to say even before, sometimes, they had opened their mouths. In the latter’s case, well, I wonder now what the other person might have thought of me. But more importantly, it made me feel horrendously stupid.

And so the good old wisdom went down the flush leaving me behind with a gaping hole as to why the person reacted so badly after this conversation.

It took me a while to understand that wisdom lies in listening and hearing and not in speculating and anticipating the words of others.

It is, in fact, an unparalleled virtue to listen completely to the words of others without interjecting them midway and without dictating what ought to come of out of their mouths. If facts be stated, we hardly are capable of exercising full control over what comes out of our own mouths.

Our tales can wait on the aisle a bit, at least till the point the other person finishes speaking. I bet that, this way, our conversations would become more easy flowing and fun.

Humans, in fact, have a lot to say. Listening to their words which I think are their symphonies. Hearing them completely, what they have to say, why they’re saying, what they’re saying, how they’re saying it. We all have an open need to be heard. Symphonies, after all, deserve to be heard!