communicating not berating...

The way forward for me in communication:

Listen, Respond, listen, respond, be patient (slow to anger, and abounding in loving- kindness)!

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Oh God, I know that you have spoken true,

but now I find I am confused with stuff,

and friends, and people all around me who

might think that I am quite “together”, tough.

But if they were to see me weak and warn,

and feeling quite forsaken, on my own,

I could imagine they would prob'ly yawn,

and recognise a failure as they're shown.

But if I am in fact a failure here,

it's not a bad thing for them so to see.

And yet I find that part of me's in fear.

There seems to be quite diff'rent parts to me.

I don't want them to put some “air-as” on,

to treat me like an invalid that needs

some special help. What is that based upon?

Is that my pride, that can't be like those seeds

which lose their own identity and fall

into the ground, then buried underneath

could never be identified at all

(which would let them keep kudos, and bequeath

their help to folk in their own name, for fame)?

I wonder. It's a possibility,

that maybe I am building up a name

for myself, as in Babel. God help me!

And so you did for them, with smaller groups

of people who were bound by culture’s ways

and languages, though it might seem like hoops

they had to go through, yet confused each prays

in language understood by the great God,

and smaller groups of people on the ground.

This shrinking of communities seems odd,

until you understand what they'd have found:

to understand; that takes a lot of work,

and only love will put the effort in.

It helps us pinpoint who, like God, won't shirk,

& shows us up, & down. ‘Coz love will win!

It listens actively, asks questions too,

then gets involved (it's already knelt near)

responds as it is fitting so to do

if patient love was casting out all fear!

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