Listen

Original source unknown - Abridged by N.W.

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 should not feel that way, you are trampling on my feelings.

Listen!  All I asked was that you listen, not to talk
or do, just listen.

 Advice is cheap, a dollar will get you both Dear Abby and
Miss Manners in the same paper.

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 do feel what
I feel, no matter how irrational, then I can quit
trying to convince you and can get about this business
of understanding what is behind this irrational feeling.

And when that is clear, the answers are obvious, and I
don’t need advice, irrational feelings make sense when we
understand what is behind them.

So please, just listen and hear me.
And if you want to talk, wait a minute for your turn,
I will listen to you.