To be in the Thinking Environment as described by Nancy Kline, Founder of the Thinking Environment and Time To Think® is to be able to listen. Listen with profound attention, ease and respect among other things. To be truly listened to without interruption is supreme. Being listened to like this results in creative thinking, it ignites thinking. How often do we just not listen. How much of our strife in our lives is as a result of us not listening to each other. To describe listening like this I feel compelled to share a poem by John Fox, for me, this is the essence of what it feels like to be truly listened to.
Listening
When someone deeply listens to you
It is like holding out a dented cup
You’ve had since childhood
And watching it fill up with
Cold, fresh water.
When it balances on top of the brim,
You are understood.
When it overflows and touches your skin,
You are loved.
When someone deeply listens to you
The room where you stay
Starts a new life
And the place where you wrote
your first poem
begins to glow in your mind’s eye.
It is as if gold has been discovered!
When someone deeply listens to you
Your bare feet are on the earth
And a beloved land that seemed distant
Is now at home within you.
John Fox