A Sunrise and the Art of Really Listening

I was out walking our dog early this morning, as I have been for the last couple of months since my wife seriously broke her ankle a week before Christmas.

What started as stepping in to help has become something I genuinely look forward to — those quiet morning miles are good for clearing the head, getting some steps up and having a bit of uninterrupted thinking time.

This morning, though, something stopped me.

I looked up and saw the most extraordinary sunrise I have ever seen. Almost biblical in nature is not overstating it. The kind of sky that makes you wonder whether someone put it there on purpose. And then, in just a few minutes, it was gone — as quickly and completely as it had arrived.

Standing there watching it vanish, I had a thought that has stayed with me all day.

As a mentor, a coach, a partner, a parent — any role where someone might open up to you — a moment like this is what it looks like when someone chooses to share something real with you. It arrives. It is vivid and significant and, for a moment, it is all there is.

And if you are distracted — half-reading an email, thinking about the next thing on your list, scrolling — you will miss it entirely.

And once it has passed, it may not come again.

Real listening is so much rarer than we think. Not hearing the words, but being present for someone when they are genuinely opening up to you. It requires putting everything else down and deciding, in that moment, that this person's story is the only thing happening right now.

The sunrise this morning reminded me not to take those moments for granted.

They are irreplaceable.

#ListeningSkills #Leadership #Mentoring