See if You Can Hear Me

We all want to be heard. We want others to see us; to listen to us; to value us; to understand us. It is a special thing when another person gives us the floor, and lets us speak with limitless patience, interested and attentive to every word we have to say until our last word is spoken. But are we able to do this for others? Do we really know how to listen? Do we really know how to see those around us? What is it that leads us to take others for granted, and to think that we somehow don't need to see them, to listen to them, to receive and respect the things the other person has to say? Attached please find this weeks Shu-Shine on the Torah portion of 'Re'eh': "See if you can hear me". (Click "Listen Now", below!) May we all be blessed to come to appreciate that the relationships that we have in our lives is a gift from the other party, be that other party a friend, a spouse, a relative, a stranger, and even God; and in appreciating that the relationship is a gift, find the respect to listen and to hear and to truly see the other party. With Love and a Smile, ~Shu