Turning Towards Life - a Thirdspace podcast

Here’s episode 15 of 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. You can find all our sources and more information at turningtowards.life

This week Justin & Lizzie began with the poem “Sunflowers’ by Mary Oliver. Among other topics we talk about the long and necessary work of turning our lives into a celebration and of undoing our sense of aloneness, if we’re going to find a way to contribute what’s ours to contribute.

Photo by Bonnie Kittle on Unsplash

Here’s episode 9 of 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. You can find all our sources and more information at turningtowards.life

This week we begin with Jennifer Wellwood’s poem “Unconditional“. We talk together about how difficult it can be to really accept our experience, how easy to run from it, and the consequences. Along the way we consider why it is that human beings so often prefer to be right than to stay in relationship, and how that’s related to our wish to defend ourselves. And we introduce the idea of an argument ‘for the sake of heaven’… which is when we disagree in a way that keeps a bigger context in view and allows us to let go of our own rigid positions.

Photo by Ravi Pinisetti on Unsplash

Turning Towards Life is a project of ThirdSpace, presented weekly by Justin Wise and Lizzie Winn. Each conversation is presented live on FaceBook on a Sunday morning.

This week we take up a conversation about realness and the openness to others that it requires, and what it is to allow ourselves the vulnerability that realness inevitably entails.

You can find all the sources and details of our FaceBook group at turningtowards.life

Photo by Angello Lopez on Unsplash

Here’s episode 8 of 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. You can find all our sources and more information at turningtowards.life

This week the source for our conversation was Francis Weller’s book “The Wild Edge of Sorrow”. We begin with two poems – Denise Levertov’s “To Speak of Sorrow” and Robert Bly’s “What is Sorrow For?”. We talk about the connection between feeling our sorrow, shared rituals and spaces for grieving, and aliveness. Along the way we touch on how restraining sorrow keeps the myth that we are separate going, and how our collective numbing to the losses of our own lives and the world is a way we keep perpetuating the more destructive aspects of our current culture. We end with the hopeful thought that finding ways to grieve together is a way to help us turn more fully and courageously towards life and all that is called for from us.

Photo by Norman Toth on Unsplash

Here’s episode 6 of 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. You can find all our sources and more information at turningtowards.life

In this episode we talk about being male and female, how society pushes us towards gendered roles and orientations to the world, and what gets left out when we gravitate to either one of the poles of emotion or intellect without the other. Our source is  Eve Ensler’s poem ‘I am an Emotional Creature’. 

Photo by christian ferrer on Unsplash

Here's ‘The Hidden Cost of Hiding', Episode 3 of Turning Towards Life, a weekly live 30 minute conversation hosted by thirdspace coaching in which Justin Wise and Lizzie Winn dive deep into big questions of human living. You can join in the growing online community around this work here: http://turningtowards.life 

This week we take up the topic of hiding – and in particular ways in which our working lives can be an opportunity for us to hold back from the world and keep ourselves safe, or they can be a place in which we can step forward and bring ourselves with all the vulnerability, risk and possibility that entails.

The source text for our talk, which you can read before watching, is here.

Photo by Kyle Sudu on Unsplash

Here’s episode 7 of 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. You can find all our sources and more information at turningtowards.life

The source for this week’s conversation was Joanna Macy’s “Personal Guidelines for the Great Turning”. We talk about what can support us in responding courageously and truthfully in the midst of the enormous changes – political, social, environmental – which may only just be beginning and which could change everything. Along the way we touch on the life-giving necessity of beauty, how to know ourselves in a way that can give us the courage we need to step forward, and how important it is to realise that none of us is alone.

Photo by Jared Sluyter on Unsplash

Here’s episode 4 of 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. You can find all our sources and more information at turningtowards.life

This week the source for our conversation is John Neméth’s song ‘Fuel for Your Fire’. We talk about how the inevitable difficulties of life can be drawn upon to support our courage, action and contribution – how difficulties can be part of the path.

Photo by Ihor Malytskyi on Unsplash

Here’s episode 5 of 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. You can find all our sources and more information at turningtowards.life

Our source this week is Mary Oliver’s powerful poem Wild Geese. We talk about the constraining effects of inner criticism and the limits of our over-effort to be good or strong or loving or clever. And along the way we stumble into some realisations about what’s possible when we learn to trust something other than our own self-judgement, and reach out to others for help.

Photo by Robin Mathlener on Unsplash

The first conversation in the thirdspace Turning Towards Life project with Justin Wise and Lizzie Winn went live on Sunday October 1st. Lizzie and Justin took up the questions and possibilities posed in a blog post ‘Numbered‘, which Justin wrote in 2015 in response to the imminent death of a dear friend and teacher.

Our wide-ranging conversation covers living truthfully with the knowledge that life is finite, bringing ourselves wholeheartedly and courageously, and what it is to not turn away.

You can find all the sources and video versions of every episode at turningtowards.life

Photo by Simon Matzinger on Unsplash