On my Facebook page, I asked my FB friends this question,
"If you could repeat one simple pleasure or go to your favorite spot, what would it be?"
The answers, and I got many (thank you!) included,
beach walking during the day or at dusk, picnics, sunny spots, sunsets, diving, honeymoon vacations, star gazing, a soccer stadium.
Cities with special memories, childhood homes and rose gardens.
Snow capped mountains and busy markets,
Pina coladas, iced coffee, tomato soup and warm bread, belgian chocolate and peanut butter ice-cream.
To be fair, I wasn't quite honest with my question.
What I really wanted to ask was.........
Listening should be easy. So why is it so difficult?
After all we have been listening from the womb. Scientists encourage us to talk to our pregnant bellies and companies have made millions of dollars marketing CDs of classical music to our yet-to-be-born proteges.
Babies learn to speak by imitating the sounds they hear. And we know our children are listening because they quote us far too accurately in embarrassing places....
America has expended a lot of energy, trying to change Putin. Sanctions, threats and many meetings and discussions have not made any difference.
Typically people don't change just because we want them to.
I'm no political theorist and I don't have a solution to the Russian conundrum, but I do understand something about relationships.
Whatever kind of relationships we are talking about, one thing I know for sure: we can't change other people. Only they can change themselves.
So where does this leave us?
