A listening person is your collaborator and your opponent. […] A listening person can reflect the crowd. He can do that without talking. He can do that merely by letting the talking person listen to himself.*
(Jordan Peterson)

Because without time, there could be not reactions to actions, no consequences. Without time, decisions need not be considered for their implications and effects. We had all been drifting in a comfortable void with responsibilities.**
(Alan Lightman)

It’s time to do something.

We can carry on through life as though we have “all the time in the world, and then we look again and it’s almost gone.

A true listener is one who helps us to make the most of our time before it vanishes.

They not only know how to listen but also how to ask questions.

A question when it’s important to explore why the thing they are sharing has come about.

A question to cut “across the bows” of is being shared because they’re direction needs to be interrupted.

A true listener also knows that most things are far more complex than we allow, and they are there for the long haul, willing to listen, with their questions, from the beginning to the end.

A true listener knows the person they are listening to has some amazing things to share, though that person does not know it, yet.

Only the questions will make it possible for these things to appear.

Of course, life is simpler if we don’t have anyone really listening.

(*From Jordan Peterson’s 12 Rules for Life.)
(**From Alan Lightman’s Mr g.)