Paper Airplanes: Ask and Listen

Monday, November 18, 2013

Ask and Listen

Seek the people that have a feeling for beauty. Seek them and treasure them and let them talk to you about what they find unique and special.
Seek the boys that look for the light in things. Seek their light and hold it in your hands while they carefully spill their desires into your ears.
Seek the girls who are passionate. Seek them and grasp at them and hold them close and respect them, because sometimes they get so caught up in their passions that they get confused.

Seek the special things about people. The special parts of someone aren't going to be carefully written down on paper or broadcast to the world, you have to dig for them.
People aren't to be read like a book: to be read and then closed when you get to the end. Get them talking, listen fully.
Ask questions.
Listen.
Think about what they're saying and let yourself become addicted to the way their mind thinks as you follow them through their past to their present, all the way into their future. Dig for information, because sometimes, sometimes it's hard for someone to share what is really inside. The same questions, the same thoughts echo through their mind again and again and again:

Did you ever ask about my past? About who I am and how I got here? Did you ever ask about what I wanted for my future? My plans might have surprised you. I have big plans. I may seem unorganized, unmotivated, like I'm dumb and have no idea what I'm doing. Truth is, "I am not sure" is the easy, safe answer. I see now that I needed to take a risk, to show what really is on the inside, because you weren't going to dig for it. Was it because I wasn't worth the effort?

But everyone is worth some effort.
Everyone is of worth.
So treat them like it.