Over fifty years ago I read the two books that changed my life. John W. Drakeford wrote The Awesome Power of The Listening Ear, and Taylor Caldwell wrote The Listener.

Drakeford’s book helped me discover that helping people begins in what they say, not what I know or say. The most powerful and healing part of the human body is the ear. The tongue comes in third after hugging arms.

Caldwell’s book showed me how it works. The book is about a fictional character who sets up a room in a downtown building with a sign that simply says, “The Man Who Listens.” Each chapter is the story of a person she called a soul, entering the room which is curtained across the end. They feel the presence of someone behind the curtain but he or she never says a word.

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