One of the greatest gifts someone can give me is listening to me fully and deeply. That doesn’t mean just letting me talk. It doesn’t necessarily involve getting feedback although the experience benefits from feeling someone is taking my words and feelings in. I am somehow buoyed by feeling somebody has an understanding of walking in my shoes. Without judgment, or revealing an impulse to “fix” my life, I really like someone to hold pace for me this way, with compassion and caring. Think about a time when someone listened to you deeply and think of when you listened to someone else deeply. Did your experience of being listened to help you offer true, sincere and compassionate listening to someone else? Write a few paragraphs about these experiences.