Portrait by Ellen Marello

We need to listen more. The generation coming is so creative and brilliant and has a unique and beautiful perspective. It brings new energy, and we just need to get out of the way. Listen to them.

You start to listen well by first interrogating yourself. Don’t feel you have to talk so much. If you can’t hear other people, then you’re taking up too much space.

Take an inventory. Who’s around you? Who is missing? Bring people in and genuinely listen. The Forum for Theological Education invites students of color that might not have had chances in other arenas. The Forum not only invites but also pays for them to come.

Deeply listen even when it’s not words. Deeply listen when I’m moved to tears and have no words. Deeply listen to this picture I have drawn, to this dance I create.

We are embodied people, with hearts and stories. You are someone talking to another embodied person, and how you deeply listen to them, and then are accountable to them, matters.

Because once you listen, you are deeply accountable. We will be held accountable to do the work together. This is the beautiful transformation for those that need to be heard and those that need to listen. It’s the transformation that happens when we genuinely listen and see people for who they fully are, embodied in front of us.

This is important. This is life and death.