Generous listening is powered by curiosity, a virtue we can invite and nurture in ourselves to render it instinctive. It involves a kind of responsibility – a willingness to be surprised, to let go of assumptions and take in ambiguity. The listener want to understand the humanity behind the words of the other, and patiently summons one’s own best self and one’s own best words and questions.*
Krista Tippett

I wish I could show you,
when you are lonely or in darkness,
The Astonishing Light
Of your own Being!**
Hafez

This is quite a journey,
From our discovery that
curiosity is an expression of valour that
any may develop until
it becomes instinctive, a growing of
openness towards, rather than against,
Surprise!, we let go of assumptions, agendas, and
self-interest,
Asking generous questions that invite
generous answers which are
intrinsic to the astonishing light each must
share;
Deep, generous listening is
generative –
We let go of ourselves in order that the
new may come to birth.

*Krista Tippett’s Becoming Wise;
**From Hazef’s My Brilliant Image, William Seighart’s The Poetry Pharmacy.