There are so many reasons to harden ourselves to the world. But what we long for, in ourselves, from one another, is for our ‘clenched fists to unfurl, ready to hold whatever small things drop inside’.

It’s not the easiest thing to do when our worlds are filled with hurt and pain, or when we are feeling tender and fragile. So how might we begin? And help one another stay open?

Hosted, as always, by Lizzie Winn and Justin Wise of Thirdspace.

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Turning Towards Life, a week-by-week conversation inviting us deeply into our lives, is a live 30 minute conversation hosted by Justin Wise and Lizzie Winn of Thirdspace.  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, Amazon Music and Spotify.

Here’s our source for this week:

Stay Like Clay

How we want hard things to soften
and change right away, for frost
to lift off stiff blades of grass
before the summer green can fade,
and for a gentle rain to prevail over
sleet that coasts each leaf left
clinging to gleaming black branches.

For the furrowed brow of a loved one
to smooth back into a smile,
and for every clenched fist to unfurl
into a small bowl, ready to hold
whatever small thing falls inside.

Maybe the trick is never to harden
in the first place, to stay like clay
outside the kiln, willing to be
molded, reshaped by the rough
and tender hands of this world.

James Crews
www.jamescrews.net