Allow Things To Go Where They Need To Go

As some of you may know, I facilitate numerous online study groups each week. These study groups bring together an eclectic mix of people from North America, Europe and beyond.

These study groups gift those in attendance with a rich discussion and sharing. The variety of views is astonishing at times. While there is much alignment among the participants, sometimes there can appear to be disagreements about what is shared.

I usually begin each gathering with a piece of poetry, then a few minutes of silence, as grounding meditation, and then we move into the evening with a reading. The remainder of our time together is used to reflect on the reading. People share their questions, comments, reflections and inquiry.

As the sharing portion of the gatherings unfold, sometimes the discussion can go in interesting directions. Usually the discussion meanders and bounces around. Sometimes I attempt to bring the discussion back to the focus of the initial reading. Sometimes I don’t. I have received comments from participants, outside of the study group gatherings, that discussion sometimes get off topic and that they would prefer the discussions remain focused on the topic at hand.

As the years have rolled on, I am becoming more and more comfortable allowing the discussion threads to take us where they need to go. Granted, even I have limits on where the discussion may take us. But I am a patient man and will at least, initially, allow most any discussion to be brought into the gathering. What I have learned is that discussion threads take us where our healing is needed. If we truly learn how to listen, there are healing words offered in any discourse. We simply need to learn patience.

In a recent gathering, one of the participants chose to share a personal experience of how they dealt with their fears. This person’s sharing about fear was not directly related to the initial reading. However, there was one small snippet of their sharing that touched me at a soul level and provided much healing. Others in the group also expressed their gratitude for this sharing on how to deal with fears.

I have witnessed all too frequently that the words that are spoken in the gatherings are of healing to at least one other person in the meeting space. The words we speak will always resonated with someone. That is why they are spoken. I remember one particular gathering where there was a rather vocal and boisterous sharing that resembled a preacher standing on the pulpit in a church spouting off biblical verse after biblical verse. While most of the people in the gathering cringed at the discord, there was one person who later (after the gathering) shared with me that they received much healing from the ‘preaching.’

It has been said that If we truly learn how to listen, everyone becomes our teacher. Every word that is spoken can offer something to someone. The key is patience. Sometimes the person speaking themselves is the person who needs to hear the healing words. Sometimes the act of speaking our mind is healing in, and of, itself. Often times, the healing is extended to those around us too.

Be patient and kind with others. Allow, even facilitate, them to say what it is they need or want to say. You may be surprised where your listening takes you.

Robert Meagher has been ordained as an Interfaith Minister and certified as a Sacred Attention Therapy (SAT) Therapist. Robert is the Founder and Spiritual Director for Spiritual Guidance and Co-Founder of the Center for Human Awakening.