Stop and Listen

TODAY’S BEST OCT 22
Today’s Best
By Muffet Dolar Villegas
Stop and Listen
A couple of years ago, I sat on one of the benches where I had a good view of the ocean. I made watercolor sketches of many winding paths, small bridges with people and some sea lions playing and sunbathing near the rocks at La Jolla Cove in California.
Tourists and locals would pass by and take a look see at my work, enjoying the delicate splashes of watercolors here and there which formed images.
On the first day,a pretty woman in her late thirties got fascinated and sat beside me. She asked politely if she can talk while I sketched. I told her that was not a problem with me. She had this trusting blue eyes and a shoulder length blond hair.She could be a movie star. I sat listening and sketching. When I finished my artwork, I learned her life story. She offered to buy my 8 by 12 inches of a watercolor seascape with few rocks and sea lions.
She thanked me profusely for a nice conversation. I wondered why she said that. I seldom talked. I just listened. But she said she felt good talking about her problem, and apologized for talking much. She lived alone and had no one to talk to most of the time because everyone was busy like her. She had a good job, a nice house overlooking the ocean, a nice car which she changed quite often. But she was lonely.
I met several like her everytime I sat and sketched at the park. It became my favorite past time to listen to people, while they watched me work. Listening can be an art itself.
It was a nice way to forget my own loneliness, being away from home for three months. That was a wonderful visit with my sister’s family and my mother. They did everything possible to make my vacation happy. But there was no place like home. It was a wonderful place to live, but when you are away from your family, the nights became longer and darker.
I love roses. And my sister’s roses were as big as cabbages. But with all these beautiful places, gardens, oceans, and museums and galleries, my heart was longing for home.
When I came back, I appreciated talking to people anywhere. What a privilege and a gift to be able to have time to talk, mingle, and just talk about the weather.They say that listening is a form of conversation. One may live in a jungle full of people, but there is a deep void of loneliness inside each heart. People from all walks of life have a story to tell.
Our country may not be perfect. But loneliness is a strange word to most of us.