"if a tree falls in a forest and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?"

you ever talk and think no one is listening? now when i say that, i mean have you ever talked and known that someone was listening, but known at the same time that they aren't hearing you?

but isn't it the same thing?

oh contraire mon frere, but they are not the same. you can hear something and not listen to it just as you can listen to something and not hear it. for instance, you can be in the car and hear a song playing on the radio but you aren't paying attention to it, therefore you aren't listening to it. and the same thing can happen when someone is talking to you, or when you are talking to someone.

it takes a mature person to be able to recognize that sometimes people don't wanna hear what you are saying. they just don't damn care about the words that are coming out of your mouth. you may want them to care, you may even believe that they care. but they don't. let's just be real about it. we only listen to the things that we want to hear. all the rest of the words phrases and sentences go in one ear and out the other. but the funny thing about life is that the people that are doing the most talking are (funny enough) the ones that are doing the most listening. the people that don't feel like anyone gives a shit about the things that they think or feel are the very ones that are listening intently to the rambling that you are doing on a constant basis, and can probably recite everything that you say word for word.

my cousin's best friend doesn't listen to her. it really hurts her feelings when she tells her friend something extremely important to her and then days later she has to repeat the same thing to her again. and you know what? i can't say that i blame her. you expect the average person on the street to not listen to or remember everything that you may endlessly chatter about. but the people that you have decided are important enough to be the ones that you care about are at least supposed to remember the major things.

i know that i have a tendency to talk a lot. this is something that i have come to realize about myself. now, that being said, i don't expect you to remember every single solitary word that comes out my mouth. i do, however, remember key things that i say to you. nothing makes me angrier than having to repeat something that i said yesterday. especially if it was important to me at the time. it makes a person feel extremely unimportant when they talk and their words fall onto deaf ears.

it hurts to have to repeat yourself. how many times have you found yourself saying "i told you that, remember?" how many times have you had to tell the same story? how many times do you have to remind your significant other who Alice that works in payroll is? you expect someone to try to remember some things. it's just a sign that you are really and truly listening to the things that they have to say.

i know you hear me talking ... but are you listening to what i am saying?

i know you are listening to me ... but do you hear what i am saying?