The Art of Conversation

Having an in-depth conversation with strangers is not something most of us do on a daily basis.  I don’t know about you, but usually I’m in my own little world, working and focusing on what needs to get done.  Maybe not the best way to go about life.  But let’s be honest, that’s probably how most of us in the U.S. spend our days.  Life gets busy.

Enter Antonia Allegra. Antonia recently came to the Ranch with a series of classes called ConverSaytions. Each class had a topic: Intuition, Bucket List, Life Challenges—Your Amazing Solutions, You Are the Storyteller of Your Life, and Lemonade from Lemons.  When I went to one of them, I honestly had no idea what to expect.  But I was pretty excited when I came to realize that we were all there to literally just talk. To just have a conversation with each other.

It was such a pleasant time. I couldn’t remember the last I had a conversation with strangers where I learned so much about them.  Our topic was Life Challenges-Your Amazing Solutions.  While we got off topic quite a bit, it was okay because that’s how conversations go.  What I really, really enjoyed was hearing different perspectives from generations other than mine.  I’ve come to learn that folks older than me actually love texting.  Who knew?  I also learned that many schools today don’t offer sports as part of their curriculum, making it that much harder for parents to keep their kids involved in activities.  To expand on that note, it seems too common for families these days not to have dinner together as much because of such busy school and activity schedules.  Very different from when I was in school.

I loved it.  I really, really loved this class.  We walked in as strangers and walked out as friends.  I just wish I could have attended each one!  What I’m thankful for the most was the change in myself as I listened to other’s challenges.  Listening to their stories helped me become more understanding of their situations and less judgmental.  A beautiful thing that I would like to incorporate more into my daily life.

Also, Antonia was the perfect leader for the group discussion.  She has such a warm and inviting spirit, making it a very comfortable place to open up.  I would participate again in heart beat.