Already Always Listening

Listening is rarely blank. Before someone has finished speaking, past experience, expectation, and judgment may already be shaping what we hear.

We still receive the words. But an interpretation can arrive so quickly that it feels like the words themselves. Then we answer what we expected rather than what was said.

The inquiry begins with a pause: what did the other person actually say, and what did I add? Fresh listening does not require having no history. It requires noticing when that history is speaking in the place of the person in front of us.