Listen
When I ask you to listen to me and you start giving me advice, you have not done what I asked.
When I ask you to listen to me and you begin to tell me that I shouldn't feel that way, you are trampling on my feelings.
When I ask you to listen to me and you feel you have to do something to solve my problem, you have failed me, strange as that may seem.
Listen! All that I asked was that you listen--not talk or do--just hear me.
Advice is cheep. Thirty-five cents will get you both Dear Abby and Billy Graham in the same newspaper.
All I can do is do for myself. I am not helpless--maybe discouraged, but not helpless.
When you do something for me that I can and need to do for myself, you contribute to my fear and inadequacy.
So, please listen and just hear me. If you want to talk, wait a minute for your turn--and I'll listen to you.
I believe in God, only I spell it Nature.
--Frank Lloyd Wright, American architect
