Please Listen

Please Listen by Author Unknown

When I ask you to listen to me
And you start giving me advice
You have not done what I asked.
When I ask you to listen to me
And you begin to 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 problem,
You have failed me,
Strange as that may seem.
Listen! All I ask is that you listen.
Don't talk or do--just hear me.
Advice is cheap; 20 cents will get
You both Dear Abby and Billy Graham
In the same newspaper.
And I can do for myself; I am not helpless.
Maybe discouraged and faltering,
But not helpless.
When you do something for me that I can
And need to do for myself,
YOu contribute to my fear and inadequacy.
But when you accept as a simple fact
That I feel what I feel,
No matter how irrational,
Then I can stop trying to convince
You and get about this business
Of understanding what's behind
This irrational feeling.
And when that's clear,
The answers are obvious,
And I don't need advice.
Irrational feelings make sense when
We understand what's behind them.
Perhaps that's why prayer works, sometimes,
For some people-God is mute,
And he doesn't give advice a try to fix things.
God just listens and lets you work it out for yourslef.
So please listen, and just hear me.
And if you want to talk,
Wait a minute for your turn-and I will listen to you.

-Author Unknown