When you think of sharing…
personal possessions come to mind like an item of clothing, kitchen or garden tools, a book. However, that’s lending not sharing.
You open your house. Make your car available. Offer your financial advantages with family and friends. Although these are very generous acts, it’s not the kind of sharing I’m talking about here.
When I think of sharing, I’m talking about sharing your thoughts, your goals/dreams, your heart, with someone special.
Sounds easy, but it’s far from it. In fact, it is easier to share the clothes in your closet, half your dinner, or twenty bucks, than to share what is in your heart.
Sharing Your Heart
Sharing your heart is more than just talking about work at the end of the day. It’s more than talking about the weather, the news, or the social event that’s coming up that you just don’t want to go to.
Sharing your heart involves revealing snippets of your past that illuminate why you are who you are. It’s laying out the steppingstones that lead someone else to see between the lines of your words, thoughts, and actions.
Small talk on the other hand can be considered avoidance because it is temporary and impersonal. However, when you’ve gone deep with your person, that small talk is like a language that only the two of you can speak. It’s temporary in that it quickly leads to more intimate talk.
You should know what most don’t know about the one(s) you claim to love.
Also, a common enemy does not a relationship make. Besides you don’t want your relationship to be based on sharing gossip, right?
No Turning Back
I must say it can be challenging to identify a patronizing listener versus someone who is genuinely interested in your life if you will take anything you can get because your relationship is meaning deprived.
Everybody wants to be known by at least one person on this earth. When you really know a person that you love, you feel loved, because that person really knows and loves you too.
It takes a massive amount of bravery to share your heart. You can only control if and what you share. Once it’s shared there’s no turning back. You can’t control if what you shared will be dismissed, criticized, or embraced and reciprocated.
A discerning mind must guide a loving heart.
“The reality of the other person lies not in what he reveals to you, but what he cannot reveal to you. Therefore, if you would understand him, listen not to what he says, but rather what he does not say.”
Kahlil Gibran
Leave a Reply