Listen with your Eyes.

We don't listen, we hear - and then we continue on our way, not understanding the fuss.
To listen is a gift, to not listen is to squander the opportunity of learning.
To sincerely listen to another, is the highest form of respect.  To listen with everything you have leads to understanding beyond the words said.

A little girl came home from school with a drawing she'd made in class.  She danced into the kitchen, where her mother was preparing dinner.

"Mom, guess what?" she squealed, waving the drawing.

Her mother never looked up.

"What?" she said, tending to the pots.

"Guess what?" the child repeated, waving the drawing.

"What?" the mother said, tending to the plates.

"Mom, you're not listening."

"Sweetie, yes I am."

"Mom", the child said, "you're not listening with your eyes."

(From Have a Little Faith. From a Sermon by the Reb, 1958. Mitch Albom.)