The Importance of Listening..

I was scrolling through my comments for this blog for the past 2 years, then I read through some of my previous blog posts.  I started this blog with the intention of educating consumers about my love of dairy farming and the importance of agriculture and food.  As I was reading I could see my passion shine through, however I noticed a certain "defensive" tone to my writing.  Maybe it's age or maybe it's experience, but I think now I can see with greater clarity the importance of listening and that was very evident in the comments that I was reading.  Many of the comments that I read today were very angry and very inappropriate.  I stick firmly by my personal rules to not engage in conversation with those who cannot be polite and civil when expressing their opinions, but perhaps I was also guilty of jumping to some prejudgments and defending my opinion without actually listening to a differing opinion in it's entirety.  I also realize how important it is to agree to disagree.  I should make it completely known that I am not against Vegan diets, organic agriculture, or anything different than what happens on our farm.  I believe in the freedom of choice, I just hope that those choices are made with a full understanding of all of the facts. And the way we all get understanding is through listening...so maybe this blog's purpose is shift towards engaging in a productive conversation about practices on our farm and many other farms and how that impacts the diets of so many people.  The way that we can make this conversation is through active listening....so I'm listening, feel free to leave and comment and hopefully my readers will also listen too.