“Anything will give up its secrets if you love it enough. Not only have I found that when I talk to the little flower or the little peanut they will give up their secrets, but I have found when I silently commune with people they give up their secrets also - if you love them enough.” George Washington Carver

Listening to others in this way is one of the simplest… and greatest gifts we can offer another.

In this busy world, we all-too-rarely experience someone truly listening to us. In that space of listening we feel seen, valued, ennobled… loved.

Deep listening costs you nothing to give, but reaps great rewards in your leadership, in your friendships, in your intimate relationships. The absence of listening creates fissures of mistrust in our organizations, our coalitions, our communities, and our world. Our ability to solve the myriad challenges of our times requires that we learn to listen to each other, and to love each other.

Practice>>> In your mind’s eye, greet each person you meet today (in person or on the telephone) as if you were bowing with your hands together in prayer position.

Silently and internally say to them: I honor you and that Divine Presence that dwells within you. (Please alter the exact words to your taste.)

Adapted from the practices of Robert Gass.

Photo: Khalil Hamra/AP

Tens of thousands of Muslim pilgrims walk around the Kaaba, the stone shrine covered with a black cloth seen at center, inside the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.

Metaphorically, it symbolizes the unity and common sense of purpose and direction in life.

A definition: incongruity between the actual result of a sequence of events and the normal or expected result.

“Our respect for human rights requires us to execute him, and there will be no review or delay in carrying out the sentence,” Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said.

Muslim pilgrims gather next to Jabal Rahmah, the ‘Mount of Mercy’. [EPA]

Hundreds of thousands of Muslims have prayed on the desert mountain where the Prophet Muhammad gave his final sermon, seeking forgiveness for their sins in a key ritual of the annual Hajj pilgrimage.

Transito, 91
Cayambe, Equador

In her country, Transito is a famous human rights symbol; she is the “Rosa Parks of Ecuador.” After the conquest by the Spanish, the indigenous people were all but stripped of their culture and forced to serve as indentured servants in the hacienda system. At fourteen, Transito’s parents married her off to keep a hacienda owner from molesting her. At eighteen, she spoke out against the owner and was sent to jail for five months. In the last 10-20 years, there has been a steady return of pride to the indigenas of Ecuador. (Quechua)

Photographer: Phil Borges

The practice continues >>>With each and every person with whom you speak, bring your deepest and most respectful quality of listening.

Much work these days happens on the telephone. This presents some challenges to deep listening. It is easier for most of us to be really present when we’re physically in the same space with someone.

On the telephone, we miss all the thousands of subtle non-verbal cues that are so fundamental to deep communication. (We miss even more when we hit the mute button and start checking e-mails while we’re “talking” with someone).

It is definitely possible to listen deeply over the phone.
But it takes extra attention.

Select several phone calls with which to practice.
For each call, try this:
* Take a moment before the call to evoke a clear intention to deeply listen.
* Close your eyes during the call.
* Rather than thinking of them being on the other end of the telephone connection, imagine “you” were right inside their voice.
* Allow yourself to settle into a state of deepest communion with this voice… and this being to whom you are listening.
* Be fully here… fully open… fully present.

Adapted from the practices of Robert Gass.

One of my dear loves, Tammy, recently shared this Margaret J. Wheatley article with me. It is one of the most inspiring and relevant articles on supporting and sustaining new leaders I have read. excerpt…

So the need for new leaders is urgent. We need new leadership in communities everywhere. We need leaders who know how to nourish and rely on the innate creativity, freedom, generosity, and caring of people. We need leaders who are life-affirming rather than life-destroying. Unless we quickly figure out how to nurture and support this new leadership, we can’t hope for peaceful change. We will, instead, be confronted by increasing anarchy and societal meltdowns.

Thus, new leadership becomes a central and pressing challenge of our time.

I believe that the old leadership paradigm has failed us and that our current systems will continue to unravel. This has changed what I do and who I choose to support. I no longer spend any time trying to fix or repair the old, or to improve old leadership methods. I spend all of my time now supporting those giving birth to the new, those pioneering with new approaches to organizing and leading. In communities all over the world, there are many brave pioneers experimenting with new approaches for resolving the most difficult societal problems. These new leaders have abandoned traditional practices of hierarchy, power, and bureaucracy. They believe in people’s innate creativity and caring. They know that most people can be awakened to be active in determining what goes on in their communities and organizations. They practice consistent innovation and courage-wherever they see a problem, they also see possibility. They figure out how to respond. If one response doesn’t work, they try another. They naturally think in terms of interconnectedness, following problems wherever they lead, addressing multiple causes rather than single symptoms. They think in terms of complex global systems and yet also understand this world as a global village.

Read the full article.

Go Margaret!

Kalsang, 25
Dgawang, 22
Dechen, 21
Dolma Ling Nunnery, India

These nuns had just arrived at the Dolma Ling nunnery in India after fleeing Tibet. In 1992 they were arrested, beaten, shocked with electric cattle prods and imprisoned two years for placing posters in Lhasa protesting the occupation of Tibet. Several times while talking, Dechen broke into tears, quietly excused herself and continued relating her story.

Photographer: Phil Borges

Sister Sarah on Worldchanging.org…

What’s Next: Sarah Pullman
Call me a hippie, but I place myself firmly in the “we have to change ourselves first” camp. In my mind, there is no single tool, model, idea, or key piece of knowledge that is going to tip the scales in favour of the world we want to see. I am inspired and endlessly relieved by the practical, solutions-based work being done by so many in the world today – WorldChanging writers and readers among them – but it’s as important that we look deeply into ourselves as it is that we look deeply into innovative tools and models for saving the world…

Victor Cobo’s compelling color essay documents Mexican migrant workers in the US and their families left behind in Michoacan, Mexico. Cobo traveled with a group of men from the village of Cheran as they negotiated hundreds of miles of desert to make the crossing. He photographed their struggle to survive in the US and the rituals and celebrations for their safe return home. This work was recently published in Ei8ht, a UK documentary photography magazine.

photographer home page: www.victorcobo.com