≡ Read Gratis The Listener Michael Schmicker 9781453690727 Books

The Listener Michael Schmicker 9781453690727 Books

Download As PDF : The Listener Michael Schmicker 9781453690727 Books

"My mother Rayanna never graduated from high school. She lived in Arkansas as a child, on a farm, and grew up during the Great Depression of the 1930s. Maybe she ran around without shoes; I don't know, but I suspect she did. She knew how to pick cotton and hitch a mule. She could make corn bread (she called it corn pone) in a big black iron skillet. And she played the piano from a very early age. She didn't own one; they were too poor, but the church did. She was raised Baptist in a fire-and-brimstone family and attended Friday night church services and backwoods tent revivals where singing was the highest sacrament. She accompanied their voices on the piano, and when the preacher wasn't there, she played the blues like St. Louie Woman and Old Man River. But her real gift was the ability to listen to anyone who needed to unburden their heart."

So begins this brief requiem written by her son Michael at her passing -- a moving meditation on the transformative healing power of listening. "From my mother, I learned that listening doesn't require a college degree, professional training or expensive, sophisticated equipment. We can do it without a penny to our name, and do it whatever our age. We can do it anywhere, anytime, for as much time as we can spare. It costs nothing, unlike large government health programs. Unlike pills and medicines, it has no negative side effects. You need no one's permission to listen. It offends no religious belief, so is applicable to any person's faith, or lack of one. Yet it can produce miracles, restoring hope and confidence and purpose in people who have lost their way - as all of us inevitably do at some point in our lives..." Troubled married couples, frustrated parents and children, confused friends and lovers - anyone struggling to build, or save, a relationship - should find in this small, powerful book a simple way to help restore hope and happiness to any shared life.