Listening, remembering and loving.

Recently, I've tried to take up this maxim to listen, remember and love. Quite simply because those are three things I'm not too good at, but I need to be; my failures in each of these have been showing up in my relationships with both family and friends.

Listening well is something that I already did a post on in Mozart's blog; the link is here.

My main problem with listening, admittedly, is remembering; my Mum often tells me that she can tell me something one minute, then ask me just a few minutes later and I'm like 'What?' OK, it's not quite that bad. But the number of times I've forgotten things that have been said to me - whether it be just the gist of it or the details - is a very long list. As well as that, I can just be a very forgetful person. I now have a running tally of how many times I've locked my keys in the car that I've put right in front of me when I'm driving so I don't forget. It's at 10. And remembering is so important in showing someone that what they said matters - if you can remember what they said a long time after they said it, that can mean a lot. Even just remembering a name is a good start, which I'm very bad at too - though I always remember a face.

Loving isn't something, admittedly, that I do too much of. I can be a lot more of an intellectual than a social person; I like being by myself, and find it difficult being with a lot of other people. If there are people I don't know, it's much more difficult. Heck, it was so bad in high school that a lot of the girls pretty much thought that I really didn't like hugs; a couple of them then tried to do so sneakily at different points. (If you want proof - here.) Needless to say, the latter spurred the former somewhat. (And, as an aside, I currently have no aversion to hugs at all.) I can probably elaborate on that slightly in another post. I know, I've said that a few times. How about I make that next Thursday then - I usually leave Monday open, because I often do it on the sermon or communion talk from that Sunday, or following on from it.
But just with people that are my family, my friends - always keeping their best interests in mind, over and above my own. It's a difficult goal, but one I strive for.