Give Me the Listening Ear

Give me the listening ear. I seek this day the disciplined mind, the disciplined heart, the disciplined life that makes my ear the focus of attention through which I may become mindful of expressions of life foreign to my own. I seek the stimulation that lifts me out of old ruts and established habits which keep me conscious of my self, my needs, my personal interests.

God Bless the Child


Give me this day-- the eye that is willing to see the meaning of the ordinary, the familiar, the commonplace-- the eye that is willing to see my own faults for what they are -- the eye that is willing to see the likable qualities in those I may not like -- the mistake in what I thought was correct -- the strength in what I had labeled as weakness.

Give me the eye that is willing to see that you have not left yourself without a witness in every living thing. Thus to walk with reverence and sensitivity through all the days of my life.

Give me the listening ear.
The eye that is willing to see.

Howard Thurman

Raised by his grandmother, a former slave, Howard Thurman (1900-1981) became a Baptist minister and a leader in the civil rights movements of the 1950's and 1960's. He was the first African American to receive a full-time faculty appointment at Boston University.


Mimi