Hi Reader,

With the start of season 8 of our You Were Made for This podcast coming September 6th, I thought you might be interested in a foretaste of what our focus will be this fall.

It’s going to be on improving our listening skills as a means to improve our relationships.

No one is born a good listener. We come out of the womb as talkers, not listeners. But over time, if we want to, we can become good listeners because listening is a skill we're able to learn. And like any skill, to get good at it requires practice.

One component of good listening is mastering the art of silence. Here is a quote I came across about this art-form that I hope will whet your appetite for more on the subject this fall.

We need to find God, and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature – trees, flowers, grass – grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence…We need silence to be able to touch souls.
– Mother Teresa

Let these words sink in for a minute,

“God is the friend of silence.”

“We need silence to be able to touch souls.”

Here’s one more quote that speaks to the importance of silence in listening:

Silence made space for other people's words, which was important for those who needed to be listened to.
– Rachel Simon,The Story of Beautiful Girl

Until next time, I’ll end with a great relationship quote I’ve repeated before. It’s from William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice,

”I wish you all the joy that you can wish.”

John Certalic

P.S. If you’re not on our weekly email list for our podcast, and would like to be, please click here. You can also access our library of podcast episodes and blog posts when you visit johncertalic.com. They are all searchable by topic, keywords, and tags.

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