Annoyed Shadow

I get annoyed with people who seem to forget what it means to have a conversation. Or when someone pins me to a certain location and gives me a report about their lives; when someone talks at me – not with me. Or when I start to talk to someone about something that is going on in my life and that person interrupts to tell me a story that was triggered by whatever I was telling them – and they continue on until they are talking about something completely different and, oh, by the way, did you see the Mariner's game on Sunday?

I was annoyed today when we are supposed to be having a dialogue and our patriarchal, old school charming Marketing Director truly believes that his is the only voice that needs to be heard by a facilitator. And he has to tell stories instead of leaving space for anyone else to say something. Everyone had something to prove. Everyone had something to say – and he made space a scarcity. He doesn't listen very well – and that ANNOYS me.

It annoys me when no one really listens to each other. I get irritated with people who seem to value hearing their own voices instead of really listening into the other. How hard is it to hold the tension of being known – and learning more about another person?

Which brings up the very obvious observation – just where does my shadow lay in this annoyance?