Writing Prompt 34

Learning to Listen: My New Skill for the Year

Embracing the challenge of genuine connection and empathetic listening as a path to personal and spiritual growth

Illustration by the Author

I have a confession to make. I’m a creative person, endurance athlete, writer, and theologian. Oh, and I’m a guy. Sounds like a pretty cool combination, right? Well, let me tell you, I’m a mess.

Creatives are often recalcitrant loners; endurance athletes are individualistic; writers can be moody and mercurial; and theologians? Guys? Well, we like to think we know it all. Put them all together, and you get someone great at dreaming up ideas, living solo, pushing through physical pain, and crafting stories, but you could be better at something as simple as listening.

There’s a new skill I’m determined to cultivate this year: making time, willingly, to listen to people. Not just hearing their words but genuinely enjoying and being grateful that they want to talk with me. This isn’t a simple goal for me.

My significant other and I work from home, and we have an eight-month-old. Both of us lean toward introversion, and we’ve become more insular since our beautiful baby girl came into our lives. Some might argue that I’m not an introvert because they’ve…