“It takes half your life before you discover life is a do-it-yourself project.” – Napoleon Hill

Inside Listening

“Hi Lynn. This is Keith Clay. Kyle Christensen suggested I give you a call.”

The words were a little surprising to me as my friend Kyle passed away last year. Those same words also gave me a twinge; heart ache as a result of the loss of a dear friend. And, Keith’s introductory message alone was motivation enough for me to return his call quickly. So, I touched his number and waited for him to answer.

When Keith answered my return call we immediately began talking about what we had in common. You can imagine my surprise upon the discovery that Keith and I both had one unexpected commonality.

“My friend Kyle asked you to call me?” I sheepishly queried.

“Yes,” Keith responded quickly. “He said you’d take care of me when he was no longer able to.”

“I miss Kyle. He was one of my closest of friends,” I continued, right before I exposed the tap-root of unfinished personal business. “I had the feeling for a couple of weeks before he passed that I should call him and I didn’t. Now it’s too late.”

“I had the same feeling!” Keith confided right back, in an emotional staccato form, right before a sense of relief and calm filled the airwave between our two mobile telephones, which were a couple of thousands of miles apart. 

Neither of us had been listening well, on the inside. That shared, unexpected common ground linked us in ways I’m not able to explain.

I am also unable to explain why neither of us were adept at inside listening when, from a hindsight view, we could both tell you it would have provided absolution. Yet, with no forgiveness possible, all we could do is share and wrap each other in the cloak of empathy, understanding and resolution.

It’s not easy to be so resolute when coming face to face with one’s own selective deafness. It is especially so, when there is no corporeal justification. So, may you, as I have begun to do, implant the astute words of Napoleon Hill into your non-internal listening self as a remedy toward removing the earwax-like blockage that causes such internal hearing loss.

Said He, “It takes half your life before you discover life is a do-it-yourself project.”

When no one is there to forgive you, forgive yourself. Then, resolve to do better, surrounding yourself with others, who you admire and make you want to become a better person, just because you hunger to become as they are. Someone like my friend Kyle.

His body isn’t here with us anymore, but I hear him in my heart every day, encouraging me to strive to become a better person, to listen more, on the inside.