Last night as I was sleeping,
I dreamt—marvelous error!—
that a fiery sun was giving
light inside my heart.
It was fiery because I felt
warmth as from a hearth,
and sun because it gave light
and brought tears to my eyes.

Last night as I slept,
I dreamt—marvelous error!—
that it was God I had
here inside my heart.

(excerpt from “Last Night As I was Sleeping” by Antonio Machado; version by Robert Bly)

“’Heart listening’ is the spiritual practice of listening from the heart and listening to the heart.  Being truly listened to is one of the greatest gifts we can give each other.”1  Spiritual direction is an ancient spiritual practice that connects one to another in heart to heart conversations.  It is sometimes called “holy listening” for the movement of the Sacred in the midst of daily life experiences.

A spiritual director listens with openness to the stories and questions you may be asking about your life.  Together you pause long enough to listen deeply with the heart to the wisdom of the soul.

  ...I would like to beg you...to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don't search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer. - R ainer Maria Rilke, 1903 in Letters to a Young Poet

1. The Sacred Art of Listening:  Forty Reflections for Cultivating a Spiritual Practice