Quick to Listen, Slow to Burn

There’s an old teaching from the book of James:
 “Be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry.”

The Queen nods slowly when she hears it.
 “They were listening, then,” she says. “They just didn’t always know how to stay there.”

To listen is to open.
 Not just your ears—but your attention.
 Your energy.
 Your willingness to hear what lives behind the words.

The Queen teaches:

“Quick to listen” means listening for what isn’t being said.
 For the ache under the silence. The fear inside the sharpness.
 It means hearing with your whole body—not just your mind.

“Slow to speak” is the practice of restraint.
 It’s not about swallowing your truth, but allowing it to ripen.
 Letting the emotion settle before turning it into sound.

Because words are spells.
 And the most powerful ones are chosen in stillness.

“Slow to become angry” does not mean anger is bad.
 It means your fire deserves a hearth—
 not to be thrown like sparks into dry grass.

The Queen invites you to breathe in the pause.
 The moment before you react.
 The sacred space where you choose how to respond instead.

So today, she offers this simple rhythm:

Listen deeply.
 Speak wisely.
 Burn slowly.

That is not passivity.
 It is mastery.