Sometimes

Sometimes

I want you to tell me a story,

like the stories Mom told at bedtime

or the stories I heard

from family members or friends

after long absences

exciting things they did,

or some tragedy that intervened,

or something

that didn't make sense,

and they're trying to formulate

the sense that whatever it is

makes,

and they're trying to hand it to me.

Sometimes

I don't know

what they expect—

Advice? Affirmation? Solutions?

Just a listening ear?

Sometimes they give me clues

Afterwards, in their reaction,

I realize

I've misread the situation.

Listening to stories rarely has rules,

unless they're simply rules of decorum:

turn off your cell phone,

make eye contact with the teller,

nod your head once in a while,

laugh, but at the appropriate times,

clap politely at the end.

Sometimes

I need someone to listen—

not someone I know

who knows large portions of my story

already,

who has pre-formed solutions,

WHERE THE GROWTH BEGINS

ideas, new directions,

who plays a key role in the story,

has skin in the game.

Sometimes

I need listeners to be strangers

following just a few

agreed-upon rules:

no fixing,

no saving,

no advising,

just listen.

If anything,

ask an open, honest question—

not one loaded up

with manipulation,

advice pretending

to be a question.

Be a mirror for me.

Let me hear my words

coming back

in your voice,

Or in silence.

Perhaps I can rehear

myself

in ways I haven't for decades.

Perhaps I can see

my words

scribbled in your handwriting.

You who don't know me—

you who act as a

sounding board,

who will hold me upright

when I feel like falling,

offer a fresh question

when I've lost

all my words,

who will sit in silence

far longer

than people

in this time and place tend

DR SCOTT SIMPSON

to accept.

We will create this

odd, safe space

where my story has resonance

so that I hear it,

so that I touch it,

take it lovingly apart

piece by piece,

so that I finally,

perhaps for the first time

in a long while, know

that I've been heard.

WHERE THE GROWTH BEGINS