building love

Last week I listened to this Democracy Now interview with Dave Isay. Dave Isay founded StoryCorps, an American oral history project. The mission of StoryCorps "is to honor and celebrate one another’s lives through listening."

"...when you hear stories like this, you know beyond the shadow of a doubt that our stories are the most interesting and important stories of all... And when you take the time, you’re going to find, you know, poetry and grace and wisdom in the people you find all around you, whether it’s your family or your friends or your neighbors or someone who you are sitting next to on a bus."

Dave has compiled some of the almost 30,000 life stories that everyday people have shared with family and friends via the roving StoryBooths in a book called Listening is an Act of Love.

There was much that resonated for me in this interview, but the deepest resonance came from the phrase 'listening is an act of love'. I thought about all the listening that literacy workers do and how it IS an act of love ... and an act that builds love.

Have a great weekend everybody. You are a gift. Your work is instrumental in tipping the balance of the universe in favour of peace, love and understanding.