An Rx for Listening

Koute se renmed ko.
Listening is medicine for the body. 
~Haitian proverb.


The last few weeks here have been busy weeks of talking and working. We have been hosting several different short term teams with different schedules and agendas. I've also had the opportunity to talk about some projects I'm excited about, to catch up with old friends, and to swap Haiti stories with my wonderful boyfriend who was here last week working on several projects. 


All that talking. 


How much listening? 


Tonight, when I came across that sweet little Haitian proverb while studying medical Creole, I paused. In medicine, I was taught that if you listen well, the patient will tell you what's wrong with them. Listening is diagnostic. I've been wondering how often I slow down from my busy bustling to actually hear what the people around me are saying. To hear their hurts, their fears, their needs, their passions, their dreams.  To learn more of who they are through listening. 


But listening is also therapeutic. Isn't it sweet when someone truly listens to you? When someone else knows you, hears you, and acknowledges you? 


As we host a team of 25 people over the next 2 weeks, I think I need to prescribe myself some listening. In my conversations with Haitians, I think God's already equipped me to listen more, since there's still so much that I don't know how to express yet in Creole. What a great time to offer others the sweet remedy of listening!