Learning to Listen

Last night was our weekly music practice. Nine singers and instrumentalists met at church to play through Sunday’s songs. At one point the noise didn’t sound good. It was like a competition – playing against rather than with each other.

I remembered years of music teaching… classroom music, school choirs, major productions… emphasising the importance of not only creating of a good musical sound, but also – perhaps more importantly –listening to how your sound fits in with the music of others.

Today, 8^th May, is the 80^th anniversary of VE day. We’ve been remembering Churchill’s famous speeches, listened to veterans’ stories, watched pictures of the 1945 celebrations. Sadly we haven’t learnt the lessons. The world war ended; world peace isn’t maintained.

Canadian author Margaret Atwood said, ‘War is what happens when language fails.’

A breakdown in human communication leads to conflict and war. Disputes and violence frequently start when individuals or nations fail to properly talk, understand, empathise, or listen.

I’m enjoying Charles Colson’s autobiography, ‘Born Again’. January 1974… Watergate… President Richard Nixon speaks about his Quaker upbringing:

‘When I was eight or nine years old, I asked my grandmother, a very saintly woman, a little Quaker lady… why it was that Quakers believed in silent prayer…

She said, ‘What thee must understand, Richard, is that the purpose of prayer is to listen to God, not to talk to God. The purpose of prayer is not to tell God what thee wants, but to find out from God what He wants from thee.’’

The ‘Merlin’ app on my phone still amuses me, recognising and identifying birds’ singing in our garden. I switch it on. ‘Blackbird… robin… goldfinch…pigeon… blue tit…’ flash up on my phone. Up till now I’ve heard the sounds. Now I can recognise which song is which. ‘Thrush… chiff-chaff…’ These are rare visitors to our garden!

Learning to listen is one thing – to music, conversation, God’s voice. I also need to continue to learn… to identify what I’m listening to, recognise its source, evaluate its importance.