If you’ve been with Hope Inc. Stories for a while, you’ve noticed I have a lot to say. The hard part about this is nothing I say helps me learn or grow. I hope, more than anything, that my words somehow impact someone else but listening to my own thoughts and my own voice gets me nowhere. This is true of us all.

Without the ability to silence ourselves and open our minds and hearts to others, we can’t expect to move forward. If we are lucky we may find lifechanging information in a shared concern, a bad joke, or a story from the past.

Listening to someone else delivers the gift of experience, because even if you’ve gone through the exact same situation, you both will come out of it differently. The opportunity to learn from one another should never be wasted. In this situation, we can unselfishly benefit, grow, change, and learn.

What secrets in life are you missing because all hear is your own voice? How much will you grow and learn my listening to others ? Let us open our ears, our hearts, and our minds to the secrets of life others share. Let us be willing to silence ourselves so we can become so much more than we are right now.

Sarah Deats

Sarah Deats is the Arizona Outpatient Support Services Manager at RI International and the Hope Inc. Stories Inspiration Engineer. Her goals are to make a connection with everyone that she can while building community, spreading hope, and sparking change. She believes that while life may not be easy, it is never lived alone.