I recently wrote about listening, really listening.  In conquering that difficult skill myself, I was amazed at how much I was missing, how much I was really not “getting”, and especially about people I thought I knew well.
With the know-it-all judgemental filter off, not only did I get to discover some wonderfully quirky aspects of friends and co-workers, I learned new ways of having fun, new reasons to laugh and new ways to care.
Listening and staying in the moment, I discovered a new game: catching them in the act of …

I watched my son at a few of his football training sessions.  I watched as the coach took them through the skills, of moving the ball smoothly down the field in a carefully timed sequences.  I watched week after week as this group of kids went from a mob chasing a ball, blindly running to converge on whoever happened to have the ball, to a team where each player kept and played his position, ball possession no longer the overriding objective.
As the kids got better and started to truly play …

Colourful garments, flowing scarves and beautifully wrapped guntinos, the Somali women’s national dress.
Children with blindingly brilliant smiles,playing hopscotch in the red sand.
Seven-day wedding feasts, celebrating with music and dance, eating together from large platters.
Huge mortars of corn, the women singing along to the beat of the pestles as they lift and crush in synchronized precision.
Endless pristine beaches, the sand so fine and white, with the Indian Ocean’s waves crashing  on Mogadishu’s Lido.
Banana plantations stretching out as far as the eye can see – yes, there was Somalita way before there …