I’m listening: upping the communications ante

My husband and I recently opened up to each other about a couple of our frustrations. One of Bob’s is our combined loft workspace in our two-bedroom cabin. Because the area opens to the first level, he’s concerned about disturbing me when I’m writing. I’ve tried sound-canceling headphones and white noise, but I’m not a big fan of either. So instead, periodically I’ve been untethering my laptop from its large-screen “docking station” and relocating it to the second bedroom whenever I need uninterrupted writing time with the door closed. Consequently, Bob doesn’t worry about bothering me. As a result of our initial conversation, I’ve also rearranged my “work” schedule to allow more flexibility for collaborating on household projects so he isn’t saddled with all the grunt work. This exercise opened my eyes to the importance of not only sharing our grievances on a regular basis, but really listening, repeating what we’ve heard, and then being willing to put into practice what we’ve learned.

How well do you listen?

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash