Communication: Abundant Possibilities

My first blog. I'm finally posting, having gotten the impetus from a recent teleconference hosted by Joan Stewart, the Publicity Hound, with guests Tom Antion, public speaking and internet marketing guru, and Adam Witty, publisher. It was an energizing teleconference with great information, and there was one comment during that hour that especially hit home for me. Tom was asked how to guard against ebook theft, and the gist of his responsive advice was "tune in to abundance" rather than fear.  I had some fear about blogging -- not that my pearls of wisdom would be stolen, but fear of whether what I would say would find readers who wanted to 'listen.' I took Tom's advice to heart, and decided to tune into the abundance of it all, to feel confident that there would be others eager to explore at least some of the communication-related topics that I myself take interest in.

Thinking of abundance and how it relates to communication... The images I get are of communicating with an open mind.  outstretched arm, engaging eyes and  a heart that is willing.  I can't count the numbers of communicative interactions I've had throughout my life, the numbers of people I've communicated with, the numbers of words I've used, the numbers of sentence structures, and grammatical forms,  of topics I've discussed,  of reasons I've communicated,  of times I've listened, spoken, read, written,  joked, frowned, smiled, sparked or twinkled my eyes when sharing with another person, working through and playing with communication at a meeting, over dinner, on the phone, at the beach.... That's abundance!  Abundant too are the opportunities  for communicating well --  saying what we want and mean to say, knowing when to say it, knowing how to say it so that we maintain our own and simultaneously respect others' integrity, realizing our unique potentials as people with this awesome capability to communicate.

Communication is a gift that most of us take for granted, though not those people who realize the  challenges it presents --- challenges in producing the speech sounds,  in giving voice to thoughts, in formulating and expressing ideas and thoughts and feelings, in hearing, in authentic listening and understanding, in integrating body language and facial expression with words and tone, in being engaged and giving and taking with another person who is equally or more or less engaged than we, in being aware of how our culture and others' play sometimes subtle but always significant roles in the mix of our finding community. 

It will be fun to follow the meanderings of this communication-dedicated blog.  l'll explore different aspects of communication, and hope that some of these snippets of abundance will find their way to and resonate with you. I'm happy to have you along for the ride, and welcome your comments and questions.