Seeing beyond the mask.

If you really listen to what another person is saying, I mean really listen, you are able to cut through the words and feel the truth.  For all sorts of reason people can become magnificent maskers of the truth. 

The strongest relationships are with the people who are really able to listen and observe beyond the smile and words.

It matters not why we are not very good at being emotionally honest, the fact is, for most people it's painful and difficult to be really honest about what they're going through.  The irony is of course that no-one is immune to suffering and yet we all pretend to be fine!

The Belgian singer Jacques Brel is in my opinion one of the best.  His song, "Ni me quitte pas" is so beautiful I can often be found with tears rolling down my face as I feel the emotion in his delivery of the song.

Until I started writing this blog post I had no idea what it was about, I just knew it was sad. Unfortunately I don't understand French...but I do understand feelings!

I've just Googled the translation to "Ni me quitte pas" and it goes like this,

"Don't leave me

You have to forget

Everything can be forgotten

That is flying away already

Forget the time

The misunderstandings

And the time that was lost

Trying to understand how

Those hours can be forgotten

Those that are killing sometimes

With whys that hurt like punches

The heart of happiness

Don't leave me.."

There's more, but you get the gist. 

If you'd like to get better at noticing the truth behind words, why not listen to a song in a foreign language and notice what you feel?  Of course the beauty of songs are that the key and style the song is sung in can help deliver the "story" - but nevertheless it's a good way to improve your ability at reading what those you care about are really feeling.

"A person who truly loves you is someone who sees the pain in your eyes while everyone else believes in the smile on your face." - Author Unknown

The history that surrounds us.

An abandoned building covered in ivy intrigues and fascinates me.  The shape of the building still clear to see, but all the details so painstakingly and lovingly created by the builder and craftsmen now invisible behind the green shroud of overgrowth.

What happened?

When did the owner leave?  

Did he walk away with a heavy heart, leaving the place he'd hoped to create many more good memories dreaming one day he'd return?

The outline of the building remains and any passer by can easily recognise what it was; but their fleeting glance reinforces that they are broadly dis-interested in what it is now.

The four external walls wrapped in a green blanket of ivy with the bricks and pointing crumbling away, the interior damp and dark with an eerie silence and smell of rotting timbers and mold.

Not the beauty it once was.

And yet it's still here.

Strong, imposing, casting a silhouette of elderly grandeur against the orange dusk of the evening sky. 

We shouldn't disregard what is already here, nor should we ignore what has been here for longer than many of us.

The stories and history held in those buildings, the memories our elderly recall, the strength and beauty of the old trees - we know so little.

"A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots." - Marcus Garvey