I once played 3 hours of modern warfare 2 with the same group back in the day, just because some guy was pouring out his life story and how much life sucked for him around the time. He sent me a quick “thanks for letting me rant” message and I didn’t hear from him again for years.
Then out of the blue I get a message that’s basically a letter, and it’s all about how life was difficult but some random person taking the time to listen without judgment made all the difference for his plans that night.
So I will never cut someone off to tell them I don’t have time to listen to their problems, or pull out my phone to play a game, get annoyed with someone who won’t stop talking, whatever… Sometimes all a person needs is someone to listen.
Yup I remember going through a phase where it was like “I don’t have time for this person’s jabber” and it would annoy me that they wouldn’t get to the point.
Meanwhile I could find all the time in the day to do meaningless things to take up my time like playing a game. Which is totally self serving.
Then I realized this was a me problem. Not a them problem.
I really hate who I was back then. Now some of my relatives do jabber on but it’s totally ok. I make space for that now cuz jabbering is part of relationships and that’s how some people communicate and listening is a part of healthy interaction.
