What matters most to you?

One of my members came in today to talk to me about resigning his Membership because his wife of 62 years had just passed away and he couldn't bear coming to the club without her.  With tears in his eyes, and swelling in mine, we talked about his wife, how great she was, everything she did for him, all the small things she did that meant the most and how he simply just couldn't live without her.  I gave him a hug, told him I would take care of resigning his Membership and wished him the very best.

Later I saw this post, posted by a friend on facebook.  I asked myself, what matters most to me?  My little boy matters most to me, my family matters most to me, my closest friends matter the most to me.  Hank talks of compassionate listening a lot when he gives seminars on his Doctorate thesis "Trust". Moral of the story, I have always thought of myself as a good listener, and I am.  However, today, I really learned what Compassionate listening is all about and what a person can learn just by really compassionately listening.