Something recently caused me to pause and reflect on the many different relationships and interactions we have with others in our village and Benefice communities. These happen in so many ways, through more the formal committees of, say, the Parish Council or PCC, to the running of fund raising and community events, the WI, Book Groups and so many more. For us to enjoy being involved and work well together, lying at the heart of it is the hugely important word trust. Trust can take a long time to build, but then can be all too easily lost, however inadvertently. The building of trust begins with how we each interact with others and of course vice versa, which sounds very obvious, but how do we learn to trust each other? Self-awareness is another important building block of trust and not long ago I came across these words on building relationships, perhaps providing some food for thought:

People ‘hear’ by what you do

People ‘hear’ by how you listen to them

People ‘hear’ by how you respond to them