“There’s the moon Nana!” exclaimed my two-year-old nephew. “There it is!” “Look, Nana! Do you see it? There’s the moon!” “The moon! It’s big, and Jesus put it there!”

He continued on and on and on and on and on. Until I listened. Until I acknowledged. Until I told him that I agreed that there was so so so much to be gained by stopping to notice the moon. It’s beautiful, you know? More than just a ball in the sky. It enables us to breathe, rest, live in a home. It allows us to exist.

And I must confess, I don’t get nearly excited enough about the moon.

Why? Because I’m a bad listener. I’m bad at noticing the way beauty is screaming at me each day.

We’re all bad listeners. Yes, we read text messages. Sure, we can check facebook. We definitely ask the cashier at Walmart how they are, but in honesty, rarely do we care. As soon as we have the chance to listen, we close our ears and return to distracting ourselves from feeling pain. And we stop ourselves from hearing the joy.

The more time I spend in the corporate world, I see how terrible a job we all do of listening to one another, to the world, to the hearts of those around us. Because if we really listened, we’d have best friends, we would let love win, and we’d hear that there’s a struggle within us all that is exactly the same. That gnawing feeling that all we want is to be understood, enjoyed, and valued for each thing we say until we leave this earth. That struggle to let ourselves listen to our own hearts.

The end of here comes fast. Hope in something greater. Let a child lead you to hear from the moon. And, exclaim in the way you listen that this world is worthy of love.

Please use today and listen up.

…because love wins.