Please Listen

Please Listen

When I ask you to listen,
And you start giving advice,
You have not done what I asked.

When I ask you to listen,
And you begin to tell me
Why I shouldn’t feel the way I do,
You are trampling on my feelings.

When I ask you to listen,
And you feel you have to do something
To solve my problem,
You have failed me,
Strange as that may seem.

Listen,
All I asked you to do was listen,
Not talk, or do-
Just hear me.

I can do for myself;
I am not helpless . . .
Perhaps discouraged or faltering,
But not helpless.

When you do something for me
That I need to do for myself,
You contribute to my fear and weakness,

But, when you accept the fact
That I feel what I feel
No matter how irrational,
Then I can get on with understanding
What’s behind that irrational feeling.

And, when that’s clear,
The answers will be obvious,
And I won’t need any
Advice.

-Unknown