Between The Lines

As a coun­selor, you learn to lis­ten between the lines. The con­tent is not as impor­tant as the style. How the per­son tells you their story is more impor­tant than most of the story itself. It is not the details of our lives that con­cern us as how we take what hap­pens to us. The haunt­ing ques­tion in the back of the counselor’s mind is always: “What is it this per­son is really want­ing to say?”

I read between the lines of books as well. How do I feel read­ing this par­tic­u­lar lit­er­ary work? What is the author really try­ing to say? Does the author know how he or she is reveal­ing their soul? The same is true with any­thing else I read or view. The real mes­sage is between the lines.

Con­ver­sa­tions are fun. They are also a bit of a guess­ing game. Peo­ple wear many masks. They may be telling you all about their chil­dren or their work, but they are really telling you about their lone­li­ness and their fears. I lis­ten and nod. What is really going on is soul-connection. One soul is seek­ing con­so­la­tion from and in another.

What is really hap­pen­ing today is not what is really hap­pen­ing. The events are not nearly as impor­tant as the feel­ings of the play­ers involved — and we are all play­ers in the story. We mask the deep­est recesses of our hearts. It isn’t that we want oth­ers to have to guess too much. We want them to know how we feel, but we are afraid.

Lis­ten­ing between the lines means relax­ing and lis­ten­ing inside to what is com­ing from the out­side. The con­ver­sa­tion is not really about who won the ball­game. It is about a per­son won­der­ing if you care what hap­pens to them and what it is like to be them.

I talk a lot, but I lis­ten in ways that might sur­prise you. I also lis­ten for the sto­ry­line within my own sto­ries. The soul is such magic!