Turning Towards Life - a Thirdspace podcast

If you sit long enough, and still, the world might reveal itself in ways you had not, yet, imagined. If you'll dance with the people and things of your life, you might find they come forward and dance with you in return. Because the world is always offering us to our imagination... and our capacity to be in the world 'as if' is one that we don't always remember to draw upon. This week's Turning Towards Life is conversation about how the world is always being shaped by the way we're engaging in it, and shaping us in return, hosted as always by Lizzie Winn and Justin Wise of Thirdspace. This is Turning Towards Life, a weekly live 30 minute conversation hosted by Thirdspace in which Justin Wise and Lizzie Winn dive deep into big questions of human living. Find us on FaceBook to watch live and join in the lively conversation on this episode. You can find videos of every episode, and more about the project on the Turning Towards Life website, and you can also watch and listen on Instagram, YouTube, and as a podcast on Apple, Google and Spotify. Here's our source for this week: If you sit long enough If you sit long enough, and still, the birds will come and you will see that the world you thought was all yours to carry all alone has only a veil between it and all the other worlds. The birds know this and delight to draw your gaze and ignite your heart by pulling back the curtain and modelling what it is to live and build and feed and grow trusting that all you will ever need has already been provided. Possessing such wisdom why wouldn't you sing and shout and show off your colours in loopy flights, and try, for the millionth time to dance on an acorn? by Beth Rookwood Photo by Gary Bendig on Unsplash

We're taught by our culture to think in polarities - something is either good, or bad; worthwhile, or a waste of time; valuable, or worthless. And because of this we often judge ourselves and our lives in polarised terms too - we're broken, or whole; empty, or full - which in turn leads us into efforting to 'get' the side of the polarity we judge as the right one. Where does this polarised thinking lead us? And might there be another way? This week's Turning Towards Life is a dive into the depths beneath and beyond polarisation, hosted as always by Lizzie Winn and Justin Wise of Thirdspace. This is Turning Towards Life, a weekly live 30 minute conversation hosted by Thirdspace in which Justin Wise and Lizzie Winn dive deep into big questions of human living. Find us on FaceBook to watch live and join in the lively conversation on this episode. You can find videos of every episode, and more about the project on the Turning Towards Life website, and you can also watch and listen on Instagram, YouTube, and as a podcast on Apple, Google and Spotify. Here's our source for this week: Growing downward Be broken to be whole.  Twist to be straight.  Be empty to be full.  Wear out to be renewed.  Have little and gain much.  Have much and get confused.  So wise souls hold to the one, and test all things against it.  Not showing themselves, they shine forth.  Not justifying themselves, they’re self-evident.  Not praising themselves, they’re accomplished.  Not competing, they have in all the world no competitor.  What they used to say in the old days,  “Be broken to be whole,” was that mistaken?  Truly, to be whole is to return. Ursula K Le Guin, translation from 'Tao Te Ching' by Lao Tzu Photo by Motoki Tonn on Unsplash

We've all selected parts of us that we present to the world, while other perhaps wilder parts of us have been pushed to the margins, as a strategy we chose earlier in our lives so we could belong, or be safe. In our adulthood, though, there's an opportunity for those precious exiled parts - with their many gifts - to be returned to our lives. They can do this with our own help, when we discover our own capacity, love and courage - and with the help of others who are generous, brave and loving enough to see beyond the 'stall of goods' we've laid out for the world so far. This week's Turning Towards Life is a conversation about being the ones who welcome the wholeness of others in just this way, hosted as always by Lizzie Winn and Justin Wise of Thirdspace. This is Turning Towards Life, a weekly live 30 minute conversation hosted by Thirdspace in which Justin Wise and Lizzie Winn dive deep into big questions of human living. Find us on FaceBook to watch live and join in the lively conversation on this episode. You can find videos of every episode, and more about the project on the Turning Towards Life website, and you can also watch and listen on Instagram, YouTube, and as a podcast on Apple, Google and Spotify. Here's our source for this week, written by Lizzie Here's to Wildness I am the jelly wrestler. Peeking out from my everyday way of being, This part that I put away long ago for fear of it taking over.  It did take over once. And I was too small to handle it.  And now I’m stronger, more grounded, more me. It’s asking to come back again. And here I am present and ready. So tentative, the thought of it is embarrassing.  Frightening even.  And somehow others can see this in me.  And are asking it forth.  And I’m willing to let it have a voice.  Let it take action.  I can feel it’s gifted. Gifts to be given.  To me. To others. To life.  And turning towards it might be shameful.  I wonder if I can bare it.  What help do I need ?  What would make it safe enough ? Welcome Jelly Wrestler. I’m here and I can handle you.  Here’s to wildness. Freedom and more of me.  Photo by MIKHAIL VASILYEV on Unsplash

What would happen if we could see that the many 'young parts' of ourselves, with their fears and worries, with their plans and advice, are doing their best to take care of us - even if the information they have is partial and, sometimes, applies only to a much earlier time in our lives. Could we come at them with kindness, appreciation and welcome instead of trying to dominate and suppress them? Could we bring them the gifts of the deeper patience and spaciousness that we are so that we can benefit from their presence rather than being gripped by them? And could we extend the same kindness to others? This week's Turning Towards Life is a conversation about all that can come from being a space of welcome and curiosity- hosted as always by Lizzie Winn and Justin Wise of Thirdspace. This is Turning Towards Life, a weekly live 30 minute conversation hosted by Thirdspace in which Justin Wise and Lizzie Winn dive deep into big questions of human living. Find us on FaceBook to watch live and join in the lively conversation on this episode. You can find videos of every episode, and more about the project on the Turning Towards Life website, and you can also watch and listen on Instagram, YouTube, and as a podcast on Apple, Google and Spotify.  Here's our source for this week: One Source of Bad Information by Robert Bly There’s a boy in you about three years old who hasn’t learned a thing for thirty Thousand years. Sometime it’s a girl. This child had to make up its mind How to save you from death. He said things like: ``Stay home. Avoid elevators. Eat only elk.’’ You live with this child, but you don’t know it. You’re in the office, yes, but live with this boy At night. He’s uninformed, but he does want To save your life. And he has. Because of this boy You survived a lot. He’s got six big ideas. Five don’t work. Right now he’s repeating them to you. Photo by Michał Parzuchowski on Unsplash

We go around our lives hiding much of ourselves from view, 'setting out a stall' that we've learned to set out through all that's happened for us so far. There are gifts behind the face we present to the world, gifts that could be brought for the benefit of many.  But often we run from the very truthfulness about what's peeking out from the shadows, what's waiting in our messy, beautiful selves, because we've assumed that what is hidden is somehow inherently shameful, or because we've not yet felt welcome to bring it. If we had the right kind of safety, the right kind of support, the right kind of conversation, and if we were to be held in relationship with the loving, uncompromising, truthful presence of another, we might find that we could ever more bring our fullness into the world - and that is what coaching (as well as parenting, friendship, community) could be for. This week's Turning Towards Life is a conversation about all of this - hosted as always by Lizzie Winn and Justin Wise of Thirdspace. This is Turning Towards Life, a weekly live 30 minute conversation hosted by Thirdspace in which Justin Wise and Lizzie Winn dive deep into big questions of human living. Find us on FaceBook to watch live and join in the lively conversation on this episode. You can find videos of every episode, and more about the project on the Turning Towards Life website, and you can also watch and listen on Instagram, YouTube, and as a podcast on Apple, Google and Spotify. Here's our source for this week, written by our friend Kate Van Akin: Where love flows through A prayer / invocation inspired by the PCC 'Y' community May this be a space of welcome A space where you are seen, unmasked and bathed in loving attention. Mine - and your own. May we discover in our time together what is peeking out from the shadows yearning to be noticed. May our space be big enough to hold both the stories you tell about yourself and the truth of your existence. May I see beyond those stories to the unique, wondrous beauty of your soul and may I shine a light on your beauty and your truth while honouring and dignifying all parts of you. May I stand tall in bringing you my observations and offerings starting close in, inviting you two steps further along the tightrope than you may have gone alone. May this be a space where love flows through, and where our hearts can speak to each other freely. by Kate Van Akin Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

It's natural that the process of our growing into adulthood results in our leaving a whole lot of ourselves behind - as we navigate what it takes to belong, to not be shamed, to stay safe, to build a life with some measure of predicability in it. But alongside all of that, what gifts and wonders, what song and words, what works of the creativity that is uniquely human might we bring to the world in service of others? And how might we support one another in doing that? This week's Turning Towards Life is a conversation about the faith in one another's bigness - and in our own - that can help us step into what's calling, hosted as always by Lizzie Winn and Justin Wise of Thirdspace. This is Turning Towards Life, a weekly live 30 minute conversation hosted by Thirdspace in which Justin Wise and Lizzie Winn dive deep into big questions of human living. Find us on FaceBook to watch live and join in the lively conversation on this episode. You can find videos of every episode, and more about the project on the Turning Towards Life website, and you can also watch and listen on Instagram, YouTube, and as a podcast on Apple, Google and Spotify. Here's our source for this week: I believe in all that has never yet been spoken I believe in all that has never yet been spoken. I want to free what waits within me so that what no one has dared to wish for may for once spring clear without my contriving. If this is arrogant, God, forgive me, but this is what I need to say. May what I do flow from me like a river, no forcing and no holding back, the way it is with children. Then in these swelling and ebbing currents, these deepening tides moving out, returning, I will sing you as no one ever has, streaming through widening channels into the open sea. Rainer Maria Rilke (translated by Anita Barrows & Joanna Macy) Photograph of Durdle Door by Justin Wise

Many of us avoid ever really saying what we think is true because we're afraid it will rupture the relationships that matter to us. But it's our truthfulness with one another - especially about our experiences, our values, our promises and commitments - that's so often called for if we're going to step forward into the unknown future together. So what about learning to be the ones who, in the face of rupture in our relationships, help one another to return and, in doing so, help one another tell the truth? This week's Turning Towards Life is a conversation about 'becoming the weavers of that circle that could bind us' - in our personal relationships, communities, and society - hosted as always by Lizzie Winn and Justin Wise of Thirdspace. This is Turning Towards Life, a weekly live 30 minute conversation hosted by Thirdspace in which Justin Wise and Lizzie Winn dive deep into big questions of human living. Find us on FaceBook to watch live and join in the lively conversation on this episode. You can find videos of every episode, and more about the project on the Turning Towards Life website, and you can also watch and listen on Instagram, YouTube, and as a podcast on Apple, Google and Spotify. Here's our source for this week, written by our friend Craig O'Flaherty: Homecoming Aloneness is a journey within, as we seek to unlock doors  we’ve closed behind us. Its only through each other that our hesitant seeds might  break through a baked, red earth. How might we become the  weavers of that circle that could bind us? Craig O'Flaherty Photo by Lubo Minar on Unsplash

Even if we're doing work we really care about, many of us are steeped in a narrative that our work should always be 'busy' and that it is only 'work' if it profoundly depletes us. But in exhausting ourselves, in living in the 'heroic' narrative of always more and always faster, can we really say that we get to bring our width, and depth, and wisdom as a gift to others? And what is the cost to the world that so many of us orient in this way to our contribution? This week's Turning Towards Life is a conversation about all of this, and about the humility called for to speak about what we care about even when we're all 'never done', hosted as always by Lizzie Winn and Justin Wise of Thirdspace. This is Turning Towards Life, a weekly live 30 minute conversation hosted by Thirdspace in which Justin Wise and Lizzie Winn dive deep into big questions of human living. Find us on FaceBook to watch live and join in the lively conversation on this episode. You can find videos of every episode, and more about the project on the Turning Towards Life website, and you can also watch and listen on Instagram, YouTube, and as a podcast on Apple, Google and Spotify. Here's our source for this week. There is a pervasive form of contemporary violence to which the idealist most easily succumbs: activism and overwork. The rush and pressure of modern life are a form, perhaps the most common form, of its innate violence. To allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns, to surrender to too many demands, to commit oneself to too many projects, to want to help everyone in everything, is to succumb to violence. The frenzy of our activism neutralises our work for peace. It destroys our own inner capacity for peace. It destroys the fruitfulness of our own work, because it kills the root of inner wisdom which makes work fruitful. Thomas Merton Photo by José Martín Ramírez Carrasco on Unsplash

What does it take to let go so that something new that is calling has a chance to be freed up in our lives? And what does it take to be the ones who can support others - especially those we love and want to cling to - to let go when it's called for? This week's Turning Towards Life is a conversation about hope, grief, leaving, and letting ourselves be changed, hosted as always by Lizzie Winn and Justin Wise of Thirdspace. This is Turning Towards Life, a weekly live 30 minute conversation hosted by Thirdspace in which Justin Wise and Lizzie Winn dive deep into big questions of human living. Find us on FaceBook to watch live and join in the lively conversation on this episode. You can find videos of every episode, and more about the project on the Turning Towards Life website, and you can also watch and listen on Instagram, YouTube, and as a podcast on Apple, Google and Spotify. Here's our source for this week, from a song by 'Villagers'. You can find a performance of the song here. Set the Tigers Free Farewell to my only friend You've been so good to me Now the carnival has ended Let's set the tigers free The spring was always early And the winter never came But since I got this hunger It just hasn't been the same I'm leaving for the great wide open plains Leaving while this holy spark remains I see you've written promises to make me stay But it really doesn't matter now anyway I'm leaving True love feeds on absences like pleasure feeds on pain So no matter where I'm standing I still love you all the same And I hope you feel the same way when its your turn to disappear I'll be cheering from the sidelines with a sandwich and a beer And all at once I step outside into the wind and rain I let it wash my weary eyes and see you do the same (And all at once I step outside into the wind and rain I let it wash my weary eyes and see you do the same) by Villagers (song lyrics by Conor O'Brien) Photo by Derek Liang on Unsplash

As Maya Stein writes in her beautiful poem this week, our lives aren't 'a stage rehearsal where you skip the high notes to save your voice'. So this week we wonder together about what it is that has us hold back, and hold others back, from bringing ourselves fully into our lives... 'the songs we could be singing while the light takes its own sweet time to change'. This week's Turning Towards Life is a conversation about, in part, an aspect of diversity and inclusion: can we welcome the 'otherness' of others and the 'otherness' of the parts of ourselves that have not yet had a voice? Hosted as always by Lizzie Winn and Justin Wise of Thirdspace. This is Turning Towards Life, a weekly live 30 minute conversation hosted by Thirdspace in which Justin Wise and Lizzie Winn dive deep into big questions of human living. Find us on FaceBook to watch live and join in the lively conversation on this episode. You can find videos of every episode, and more about the project on the Turning Towards Life website, and you can also watch and listen on Instagram, YouTube, and as a podcast on Apple, Google and Spotify. Here's our source for this week, written by poet Maya Rachel Stein: press play Listen, friend. This isn’t a poker game, some thick-smoked room to keep your cards hidden until the final ante. This isn’t the stage rehearsal where you skip the high notes to save your voice, or those practice runs in the parking lot with a map of orange cones guiding you into reverse and parallel. Yes, the tide will keep going out and back like clockwork. We will always look to measure and mete out our efforts in incremental intervals, testing the recipe of our purpose, licking our fingers clean. We will want to glimpse what is too much or not enough without the sacrifice of embarrassment or, worse, the fallen soufflé of failure. But my goodness, the songs we could be singing while the light takes its own sweet time to change. The dust we could be kicking up as the dance finds us on inexpert legs, spilling out the door and into the waiting streets. Maya Stein mayastein.com Photo by Jackson David on Unsplash