Several times in the past few days I’ve been in a situation where someone was asking or telling me something important, and there was nothing for me to say. In one case the person was angry. In another they were hurt. In another they were just thinking out loud. In all those cases, my ear was more important than my mouth.
I didn’t like it. I never do.
You can always say something: the wrong thing. I try to avoid that.
Listening instead of speaking isn’t a magical balm. People don’t automatically get better because you were a good listener. They don’t suddenly solve all their problems.
But nothing would make that happen. There was no exact combination of words that if only you figured it out, would make every problem vanish.
That’s just life, sometimes. Listen to it.
The Opportunity Machine 