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We begin this week with Hollie Holden's poem about the ways we perform in order to belong, and the counterpoint of an unconditional love by which we might welcome ourselves and others. We explore the ways that a deeper belonging with one another arises from encountering ourselves and others with a kind of grace and attention to the sacred and inherent value of every person. The conversation asks us to do the complex and often difficult work of building cultures where genuineness is welcome, where we can fall apart and still be seen, and where we extend to one another the precious, unwavering love that knows us as inherently whole even when - especially when - we disagree.This week is 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 explore living with depth, attentiveness and care. Find us on FaceBook to 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 in all the usual podcast places. Episode Overview00:00 Introduction and Reflections03:14 Learning and Community with Us06:09 Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel09:09 Wonder and Awareness17:08 Adapting Our Minds to the World29:24 Parenting and WonderOur source for this week:Just the way you are It seems to me that, as we grow, Our masks get more and more clever. We try each one out, wondering - will they love me like this?Will they love me if I’m insightful and sparkly and helpful and Zen and kind and deep and clever and shiny and loyal and strong?Will they love me if I take on their pain? if I carry the whole family? if I hide my needs and use my resilience to keep everyone else centered?I try on all these masks and - even when they feel good to wear and everyone does seem to love me like this and this and this - A question keeps rising to the surface like a forgotten whale who has never left me.And she wants to know who I am when nobody’s around.She loves my pajamas and the softness of my tummy and the way I talk to myself when I’m choosing what to wear.She loves me when I’m grumpy in the morning and when I doubt myself and when I remember to ask for help – and when I forget.She loves me in a way that makes the masks less and less interesting and less and less necessary.And she only ever asks me one question - this whale who’s never left me:Can you soften more today into the Love that loves you just the way you are? Hollie Holden July 2026 Photo by Jonathan Hsu on Unsplash Join Our Weekly Mailing: www.turningtowards.life/subscribeSupport Us: www.buymeacoffee.com/turningtowardslife---Join Us Live in 2026Turning Towards Life Live Season 4, from March 2027Our Turning Towards Life live programme of community, learning and reflection runs in six month seasons, in person on Zoom once a month. We're very excited about it. A chance to expand beyond the bounds of a podcast into forming a community of learning and practice.You can find out more and join us here: www.turningtowards.life/liveLearn Coaching with ThirdspaceFoundations of Integral Development CoachingOur two-day immersive introduction to integral development coaching. An opportunity to begin to learn to support others in deep, life giving discovery and development. You can read more 'Foundations' and book a place here:www.wearethirdspace.org/foundations-of-coachingYou can hear us talk about the philosophy of our coaching programmes here:www.turningtowards.life/coachingAnd our year-long Professional Coaching Course details are here:www.wearethirdspace.org/professional-coaching-courseJoin Our Weekly Mailing: www.turningtowards.life/subscribeSupport Us: www.buymeacoffee.com/turningtowardslife

We are invited into Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel's philosophy of wonder and radical amazement. It's a call to break free from habitual thinking and approach life with fresh curiosity. We explore together what it is to take nothing for granted and to practice 'maladjustment' to what we already know and feel sure about. And through all of that we invite ourselves, and you, into deepened care for all that surrounds us all.This week is 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 explore living with depth, attentiveness and care. Find us on FaceBook to 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 in all the usual podcast places. Episode Overview00:00 Introduction and Reflections 03:14 Learning and Community with Us06:09 Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel09:09 Wonder and Awareness17:08 Adapting Our Minds to the World29:24 Parenting and WonderOur source for this week:The greatest hindrance to knowledge is our adjustment to conventional notions, to mental clichés. Wonder or radical amazement, the state of maladjustment to words and notions, is, therefore, a prerequisite for an authentic awareness of that which is. Standing eye to eye with being, we realize that we are able to look at the world with two faculties-the first we try to explain or to adapt the world to our concepts, through the second we seek to adapt our minds to the world… Wonder is a state of mind in which we do not look at reality through the latticework of our memorized knowledge; in which nothing is taken for granted. Spiritually we cannot live by merely reiterating borrowed or inherited knowledge. Inquire of your soul what does it know, what does it take for granted. It will tell you only nothing is taken for granted; each thing is a surprise, being is unbelievable. We are amazed at seeing anything at all; amazed not only at particular values and things but at the unexpectedness of being as such, at the fact that there is being at all. Rabbi Abraham Joshua HeschelPhoto by Anuj Yadav on Unsplash Join Our Weekly Mailing: www.turningtowards.life/subscribeSupport Us: www.buymeacoffee.com/turningtowardslife---Join Us Live in 2026Turning Towards Life Live Season 4, from March 2027Our Turning Towards Life live programme of community, learning and reflection runs in six month seasons, in person on Zoom once a month. We're very excited about it. A chance to expand beyond the bounds of a podcast into forming a community of learning and practice.You can find out more and join us here: www.turningtowards.life/liveLearn Coaching with ThirdspaceFoundations of Integral Development CoachingOur two-day immersive introduction to integral development coaching. An opportunity to begin to learn to support others in deep, life giving discovery and development. You can read more 'Foundations' and book a place here:www.wearethirdspace.org/foundations-of-coachingYou can hear us talk about the philosophy of our coaching programmes here:www.turningtowards.life/coachingAnd our year-long Professional Coaching Course details are here:www.wearethirdspace.org/professional-coaching-courseJoin Our Weekly Mailing: www.turningtowards.life/subscribeSupport Us: www.buymeacoffee.com/turningtowardslife

We begin our 10th year of Turning Towards Life with a poem about the capacity of our own hearts to meet the newness of each day, and the love and grief of living. We explore how we can find a way to know our own vastness, capacity and the inherent dignity and sacredness of being a person, and see it in one another... as an antidote and alternative to a world that seems to ask us to be afraid of one another rather than see one another for the precious, irreplaceable life that we each are.This week is 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 explore living with depth, attentiveness and care. Find us on FaceBook to 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 in all the usual podcast places. Episode Overview00:00 Celebrating a Decade of Connection02:54 The Gift of Each New Day06:00 Limitlessness of the Heart12:04 Understanding Our Completeness18:07 On Connection and CommunityOur source for this week:Today is a new day. Every morning the sun rises. There is always another train that comes if I stand on the platform. Another breath arrives without me even asking it to.  My children wake with the kind of enthusiasm that only newness can bring. So they’re all the evidence I need. That it’s given, the new day.  And what is a life other than a collection of many, many new days. And then I start to think about if the days were few. And maybe they are.  We never know. So each day is new. Each day is precious. Each one belongs to us.  And my goodness how we forget this. How asleep we can be to the gift of the day. The hour. The minute that’s given.  All my stories getting in the way of receiving life. Getting in the way of remembering. Protecting myself maybe from that feeling that we really don’t know.  Our days are indeed numbered. So what shall we do ? Love. Step forth. Have faith ? Someone said ‘my heart is full, but oh wait a second, there’s room for more’. And in that moment, I realised that the fullness of a heart is not even possible.  They are massive, vast, huge, crazy with bigness. Even if we tried to fill them up we can’t. There is no end to them, that’s why.  And so grief can’t break us, because our hearts have no edges. What holds us back from feeling it all is a mistaken understanding that there’s a limit. But there isn’t.  So with hearts that have no boundaries, we can love and love and love, and grieve and grieve and grieve. And our joy has no end either.  So here we are. What shall we do ?  Cups of tea make sense, having a cuddle, writing a poem, letting the sunlight dance on my warm skin and feel the rain soaking through my trousers.  Lizzie Winn1st October 2026 Photo by simon on UnsplashJoin Our Weekly Mailing: www.turningtowards.life/subscribeSupport Us: www.buymeacoffee.com/turningtowardslife---Join Us Live in 2026Turning Towards Life Live Season 4, from March 2027Our Turning Towards Life live programme of community, learning and reflection runs in six month seasons, in person on Zoom once a month. We're very excited about it. A chance to expand beyond the bounds of a podcast into forming a community of learning and practice.You can find out more and join us here: www.turningtowards.life/liveLearn Coaching with ThirdspaceFoundations of Integral Development CoachingOur two-day immersive introduction to integral development coaching. An opportunity to begin to learn to support others in deep, life giving discovery and development. You can read more 'Foundations' and book a place here:www.wearethirdspace.org/foundations-of-coachingYou can hear us talk about the philosophy of our coaching programmes here:www.turningtowards.life/coachingAnd our year-long Professional Coaching Course details are here:www.wearethirdspace.org/professional-coaching-courseJoin Our Weekly Mailing: www.turningtowards.life/subscribeSupport Us: www.buymeacoffee.com/turningtowardslife

We celebrate nine years of Turning Towards Life with a conversation about the relationship between life's everyday demands and a deeper, more stable presence that we can rely upon. We explore how remembering what lies beneath can help us to meet life's complexity as active participants, grounded in something mountainous and enduring that holds us no matter how turbulent our circumstances become.This week is 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 explore living with depth, attentiveness and care. Find us on FaceBook to 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 in all the usual podcast places. Episode Overview00:00 Celebrating Nine Years of Turning Towards Life02:52 The Essence of Conversation and Connection06:11 Exploring Mary Oliver's Poem11:30 The Mountainousness of Life17:24 Finding Joy Amidst the Drama23:36 Slowing Down29:28 Closing ReflectionsThe Poet Dreams of the Mountain by Mary Oliver Sometimes I grow weary of the days, with all their fits and starts.I want to climb some old gray mountains, slowly, takingThe rest of my lifetime to do it, resting often, sleepingUnder the pines or, above them, on the unclothed rocks.I want to see how many stars are still in the skyThat we have smothered for years now, a century at least.I want to look back at everything, forgiving it all,And peaceful, knowing the last thing there is to know.All that urgency! Not what the earth is about!How silent the trees, their poetry being of themselves only.I want to take slow steps, and think appropriate thoughts.In ten thousand years, maybe, a piece of the mountain will fall.” Mary OliverSwan: Poems and Prose PoemsPhoto by Ante Hamersmit on Unsplash Join Our Weekly Mailing: www.turningtowards.life/subscribeSupport Us: www.buymeacoffee.com/turningtowardslife---Join Us Live in 2026Turning Towards Life Live Season 4, from March 2027Our Turning Towards Life live programme of community, learning and reflection runs in six month seasons, in person on Zoom once a month. We're very excited about it. A chance to expand beyond the bounds of a podcast into forming a community of learning and practice.You can find out more and join us here: www.turningtowards.life/liveLearn Coaching with ThirdspaceFoundations of Integral Development CoachingOur two-day immersive introduction to integral development coaching. An opportunity to begin to learn to support others in deep, life giving discovery and development. You can read more 'Foundations' and book a place here:www.wearethirdspace.org/foundations-of-coachingYou can hear us talk about the philosophy of our coaching programmes here:www.turningtowards.life/coachingAnd our year-long Professional Coaching Course details are here:www.wearethirdspace.org/professional-coaching-courseJoin Our Weekly Mailing: www.turningtowards.life/subscribeSupport Us: www.buymeacoffee.com/turningtowardslife

An episode about the deep wellsprings of aliveness within each of us that we might remember in ourselves and one another as we face crisis, uncertainty, or simply as we navigate ordinary moments in our lives. How our presence matters: to ourselves, to each other, and to life itself, and how this is the very ground from which we grow into the people we're becoming.This week is 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 explore living with depth, attentiveness and care. Find us on FaceBook to 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 in all the usual podcast places. Episode Overview00:00 Introduction 02:46 The Story of Today's Source06:05 She Is Fireweed08:59 What's Fireweed?12:08 Circles14:59 Roots17:54 Aliveness20:59 Storytelling24:04 Interconnectedness 26:52 Hope30:04 ConclusionShe is FireweedI ask her what makes her indestructible, She says it’s her roots.  I ask her what her roots are like, She says that they go so deep, so dark, so close to the earth’s core.  I ask her how her roots got so deep, She says that while the sun shone she received so much light it went all the way down to her toes.  I ask her how she received so fully, She says that her pink opened itself to joyful expression with every sunrise.  I ask her how her pink got so vibrant, She says that she saw the blue of the sky and did her best to match it, to join in.  I asked her why the sky helped her vibrancy, She says that the big sky blue connects her to life, clear seeing and aliveness as she looks at it.  I ask her about being so full of life, She says all the ways I connected myself to life help me when fire comes to scorch the surface of the earth.  I ask her about the scorching surface, She says that fires are part of nature itself, And that deep roots are what it takes to preserve life while the fires bring the skyline to seemingly nothing. I ask her about the nothingness, She says it’s never nothingness, there’s always Life beneath, ready to spring back when the conditions are ripe.  I ask her about regeneration, She says that’s what she’s made of.  I ask her what she’s made of, She says she’s actually love and thatShe works just like love does.  Ever present, ready to expand, ready to breathe life back in. Trustworthy, life filled, joyful and shining.  Lizzie WinnPhoto by Herbert Grambihler on Unsplash Join Our Weekly Mailing: www.turningtowards.life/subscribeSupport Us: www.buymeacoffee.com/turningtowardslife---Join Us Live in 2026Turning Towards Life Live Season 4, from March 2027Our Turning Towards Life live programme of community, learning and reflection runs in six month seasons, in person on Zoom once a month. We're very excited about it. A chance to expand beyond the bounds of a podcast into forming a community of learning and practice.You can find out more and join us here: www.turningtowards.life/liveLearn Coaching with ThirdspaceFoundations of Integral Development CoachingOur two-day immersive introduction to integral development coaching. An opportunity to begin to learn to support others in deep, life giving discovery and development. You can read more 'Foundations' and book a place here:www.wearethirdspace.org/foundations-of-coachingYou can hear us talk about the philosophy of our coaching programmes here:www.turningtowards.life/coachingAnd our year-long Professional Coaching Course details are here:www.wearethirdspace.org/professional-coaching-courseJoin Our Weekly Mailing: www.turningtowards.life/subscribeSupport Us: www.buymeacoffee.com/turningtowardslife

In a time when despair and apocalyptic thinking dominate public discourse, what does it mean to remember our capacity for imagination, astonishment and wonder? Can we find alternatives to the pull toward cynicism and fear and learn to astonish others and ourselves into a state of genuine aliveness? An invitation to step forward with courage to remember that we are far earlier in the human story than we think.This week is 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 explore living with depth, attentiveness and care. Find us on FaceBook to 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 in all the usual podcast places. Episode Overview00:00 Introduction to Turning Towards Life03:00 The Power of Unplanned Conversations06:22 Exploring the Source: Astonishment12:00 Falling Apart and Becoming Whole19:43 Astonishment in Our Lives27:10 Responding to the World 34:55 ConclusionOur source for this week:On the mountain tonight the full moonfaces the full sun. Now could be the momentwhen we fall apart or we become whole.Our time seems to be up—I think I even hear it stopping.Then why have we kept up the singing for so long?Because that’s the sort of determined creature we are.Before us, our first task is to astonish,and then, harder by far, to be astonished. From ‘Astonishment’ by Galway KinnellPhoto by Jorge Gardner on Unsplash Join Our Weekly Mailing: www.turningtowards.life/subscribeSupport Us: www.buymeacoffee.com/turningtowardslife---Join Us Live in 2026Turning Towards Life Live Season 3, from 16 September 2026Our Turning Towards Life live programme of community, learning and reflection runs in six month seasons, in person on Zoom once a month. We're very excited about it. A chance to expand beyond the bounds of a podcast into forming a community of learning and practice.You can find out more and join us here: www.turningtowards.life/liveLearn Coaching with ThirdspaceFoundations of Integral Development CoachingOur two-day immersive introduction to integral development coaching. An opportunity to begin to learn to support others in deep, life giving discovery and development. You can read more 'Foundations' and book a place here:www.wearethirdspace.org/foundations-of-coachingYou can hear us talk about the philosophy of our coaching programmes here:www.turningtowards.life/coachingAnd our year-long Professional Coaching Course details are here:www.wearethirdspace.org/professional-coaching-courseJoin Our Weekly Mailing: www.turningtowards.life/subscribeSupport Us: www.buymeacoffee.com/turningtowardslife

How genuine relationship requires us to release our need for the ones we love to remain unchanged, and grief and love as two inseparable dimensions of the same human experience.This week is 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 explore living with depth, attentiveness and care. Find us on FaceBook to 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 in all the usual podcast places. Episode Overview00:00 The Nature of Love04:38 Growth and Fluidity 08:30 Friendship Dynamics, Seasonal Changes12:48 Acceptance in Relationships15:37 The Challenge of Accepting Change18:32 Navigating Grief 28:40 Letting Go 32:04 The Interplay of Grief and LoveOur source for this week:When you love someone, you do not love them all the time, in exactly the same way, from moment to moment. It is an impossibility. It is even a lie to pretend to. And yet this is exactly what most of us demand. We have so little faith in the ebb and flow of life, of love, of relationships. We leap at the flow of the tide and resist in terror its ebb. We are afraid it will never return. We insist on permanency, on duration, on continuity; when the only continuity possible, in life as in love, is in growth, in fluidity - in freedom, in the sense that the dancers are free, barely touching as they pass, but partners in the same pattern. The only real security is not in owning or possessing, not in demanding or expecting, not in hoping, even. Security in a relationship lies neither in looking back to what was in nostalgia, nor forward to what it might be in dread or anticipation, but living in the present relationship and accepting it as it is now. Relationships must be like islands, one must accept them for what they are here and now, within their limits - islands, surrounded and interrupted by the sea, and continually visited and abandoned by the tides. Anne Morrow LindberghPhoto by Hrvoje_Photography on UnsplashJoin Our Weekly Mailing: www.turningtowards.life/subscribeSupport Us: www.buymeacoffee.com/turningtowardslife---Join Us Live in 2026Turning Towards Life Live Season 3, from 16 September 2026Our Turning Towards Life live programme of community, learning and reflection runs in six month seasons, in person on Zoom once a month. We're very excited about it. A chance to expand beyond the bounds of a podcast into forming a community of learning and practice.You can find out more and join us here: www.turningtowards.life/liveLearn Coaching with ThirdspaceFoundations of Integral Development CoachingOur two-day immersive introduction to integral development coaching. An opportunity to begin to learn to support others in deep, life giving discovery and development. You can read more 'Foundations' and book a place here:www.wearethirdspace.org/foundations-of-coachingYou can hear us talk about the philosophy of our coaching programmes here:www.turningtowards.life/coachingAnd our year-long Professional Coaching Course details are here:www.wearethirdspace.org/professional-coaching-courseJoin Our Weekly Mailing: www.turningtowards.life/subscribeSupport Us: www.buymeacoffee.com/turningtowardslife

This episode celebrates the life and work of Wendell Berry, the  poet and farmer who died this week. Berry's brief  poem "The Real Work,"  invites us to recognise that when we no longer know what to do or which way to go, we may have arrived at our genuine calling. A conversation for all of us navigating confusion, loss, or disorientation, and wondering about how we might bring ourselves when we no longer know the way.This week is 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 explore living with depth, attentiveness and care. Find us on FaceBook to 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 in all the usual podcast places. Episode Overview00:00 Introduction to Wendell Berry's Legacy03:06 Surface and Depth05:58 The Real Work08:47 Finding Meaning in the Impeded Stream14:05 Others and Navigating Life's Challenges14:53 The Beauty of Not Knowing: A Personal Reflection17:37 The Song of Life in Chaos21:00 On Connection23:18 Responding to Life's Challenges Together26:55 The Transformative Nature of Uncertainty29:53 What is the Real Work?Our source for this week: The Real Work It may be that when we no longer know what to dowe have come our real work, and that when we no longer know which way to gowe have come to our real journey. The mind that is not baffled is not employed. The impeded stream is the one that sings. Wendell Berry (1934-2026)Photo by Jeffrey Hamilton on Unsplash Join Our Weekly Mailing: www.turningtowards.life/subscribeSupport Us: www.buymeacoffee.com/turningtowardslife---Join Us Live in 2026Turning Towards Life Live Season 3, from 16 September 2026Our Turning Towards Life live programme of community, learning and reflection runs in six month seasons, in person on Zoom once a month. We're very excited about it. A chance to expand beyond the bounds of a podcast into forming a community of learning and practice.You can find out more and join us here: www.turningtowards.life/liveLearn Coaching with ThirdspaceFoundations of Integral Development CoachingOur two-day immersive introduction to integral development coaching. An opportunity to begin to learn to support others in deep, life giving discovery and development. You can read more 'Foundations' and book a place here:www.wearethirdspace.org/foundations-of-coachingYou can hear us talk about the philosophy of our coaching programmes here:www.turningtowards.life/coachingAnd our year-long Professional Coaching Course details are here:www.wearethirdspace.org/professional-coaching-course Join Our Weekly Mailing: www.turningtowards.life/subscribeSupport Us: www.buymeacoffee.com/turningtowardslife

A conversation about meeting one another's 'falling apart', the cultural pressure to stay buttoned up, the fertile potential hidden inside our moments of undoing, and what it means to be a person who can welcome and hold space for another's becoming rather than trying to put the lid back on. How genuine care for another might involve staying faithful to the life inside them, which is something deeper than their current circumstances, their current identity, or the version of them we first fell in love with.This week is 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 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 in all the usual podcast places. Episode Overview00:00 Welcome02:56 Exploring Total Breakdown by Chelan Harkin05:52 Embracing Undoing09:05 Cultural Norms and Fears12:09 Keeping It Together vs. Falling Apart15:03 Finding Safe Spaces for Breaking Apart18:04 Context and Timing in Personal Growth20:56 Creating Relational Safety for Vulnerability24:01 The Moral Responsibility in Relationships27:13 The Power of Seeing Each Other's Life30:06 Conclusion and Invitation to EngageOur source for this week:Total Breakdown June 2026 (Vol. XXXIX, No. 6) "She's having a total breakdown,"one put togetherand very self-satisfied seedwith no cracks in itwhispered to anotherabout a third seed who had begunto germinate. "She's completely falling apart—her life is a mess!" They gazed superiorlyat the smooth, intact facadeof their shellsso perfectly upholdingexpectations of the status quo.Clearly, compared to that wild,sprouting seeddisrupting the peace,they were doing something right...right? But now and then,they secretly looked upwith longing at the tall-stemmed,bravely opened flowerwondering if there might bemore to themselves. Chelan Harkin, from WILD GRACE: POEMSpoetrycooperative.org/chelan-harkinPhoto by David Clode on Unsplash Join Our Weekly Mailing: www.turningtowards.life/subscribeSupport Us: www.buymeacoffee.com/turningtowardslife---Join Us Live in 2026Turning Towards Life Live Season 3, from 16 September 2026Our Turning Towards Life live programme of community, learning and reflection runs in six month seasons, in person on Zoom once a month. We're very excited about it. A chance to expand beyond the bounds of a podcast into forming a community of learning and practice.You can find out more and join us here: www.turningtowards.life/liveLearn Coaching with ThirdspaceFoundations of Integral Development CoachingOur two-day immersive introduction to integral development coaching, led by Lizzie and Justin from Turning Towards Life. An opportunity to begin to learn to support others in deep, life giving discovery and development. You can read more 'Foundations' and book a place here:www.wearethirdspace.org/foundations-of-coachingYou can hear us talk about the philosophy of our coaching programmes here:www.turningtowards.life/coachingAnd our year-long Professional Coaching Course details are here:www.wearethirdspace.org/professional-coaching-course

A meditation on loss, presence, and what we learn from the people in our lives. Lizzie and Justin consider what each person might be teaching us, not just through their words, but through their presence. We explore how to see beyond the surface presentation of other people and wonder "what gifts and qualities is this person showing me? How are they sweeping the path for me?" And we consider what it is to extend this practice beyond those we grieve for to all our relationships, as both an act of love and as a practice for cultivating a more connected, compassionate world around each of us. This week is 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 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 in all the usual podcast places. Episode Overview00:00 Introduction to Turning Towards Life03:12 Exploring the Poem: A Bunch of Consolation05:59 Reflections on Loss and Learning08:46 The Nature of Love and Relationships12:11 The Importance of Reflection and Eulogy Writing14:59 Seeing Beyond Surface Relationships17:55 Curiosity and Learning from Others21:09 Honoring the Living and the Dead24:06 Activism through Connection27:15 Closing Thoughts and InvitationsOur source for this week:A Bunch of ConsolationYou think they’ll always be there,(the ones who always have been).They showed you the way,not their waybut how to find your own(and what to say),sweeping the path of leavesor snow but then the leaves, they go,before you were ready(how could you ever be ready?)to wonder, wondering,what have you learned exactly?To love, to speak up, to hold steady.Hold steady. Maura DooleyPhoto by Reza Madani on Unsplash Join Our Weekly Mailing: www.turningtowards.life/subscribeSupport Us: www.buymeacoffee.com/turningtowardslife---Join Us Live in 2026Turning Towards Life Live Season 3, from September 2026Our Turning Towards Life live programme of community, learning and reflection runs in six month seasons, in person on Zoom once a month. We're very excited about it. A chance to expand beyond the bounds of a podcast into forming a community of learning and practice.You can find out more and join us here: www.turningtowards.life/liveLearn Coaching with ThirdspaceFoundations of Integral Development CoachingOur two-day immersive introduction to integral development coaching, led by Lizzie and Justin from Turning Towards Life. An opportunity to begin to learn to support others in deep, life giving discovery and development. You can read more 'Foundations' and book a place here:www.wearethirdspace.org/foundations-of-coachingYou can hear us talk about the philosophy of our coaching programmes here:www.turningtowards.life/coachingAnd our year-long Professional Coaching Course details are here:www.wearethirdspace.org/professional-coaching-course

We begin with Rick Rubin’s “The Prism of Self”. A conversation about the welcome and unwelcome, our inner multitudinousness, bringing forward what’s been in the shadows, discernment, and how art and open conversation can make room in our lives for more of the vast complexity we each are.This week is 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 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 in all the usual podcast places. Episode Overview00:00 Introduction to Turning Towards Life02:37 Exploring the Prism of Self08:59 The Complexity of Identity13:05 Navigating the Spectrum of Self20:04 Welcoming it All25:59 Art as a Reflection of the SelfOur source for this week:The Prism of SelfDefining one’s true self is not so simple. It may be impossible. We inhabit many different versions of a changing self. The suggestion to be yourself may be too general to be of much use. There’s being yourself as an artist, being yourself with your family, being yourself at work, being yourself with friends, being yourself in times of crisis or in times of peace, and being yourself for yourself, when by yourself. In addition to these environmental variations, we are also always changing within. Our moods, our energy level, the stories we tell ourselves, our prior experiences, how hungry or tired we are: All these variants create a new way of being in each moment. Depending on who we’re with, where we are, and how safe or challenged we feel, we are changing all the time. Moving between different aspects of self. We may have one aspect that wants to be more bold or subversive, which wrestles with our more agreeable, conflict-avoidant self. There may be a dreamer aspect, aspiring to inhabit vast magnificent worlds, at odds with our pragmatic side that questions our ability to make our dreams real. There is a constant negotiation occurring between these various aspects. And each time we tune in to a particular one, different choices result, changing the outcome of our work. In a prism, a single beam of light enters and is broken into an array of colors. The self, too, is a prism. Neutral events enter, and are transformed into a spectrum of feelings, thoughts, and sensations. All this information is processed distinctively by each aspect of self, refracting life’s light in its own way, and emitting different shades of art. For this reason, not every work can reflect all of our selves. Perhaps it’s never possible, no matter how hard we try. Instead, we might embrace the prism of self, and keep allowing reality to bend uniquely through us. Like a kaleidoscope, we can adjust the aperture on our vision and change the results. We may aim to work from one particular aspect, like taking on a character, and create something from our darkest self or our most spiritual self. Those two works won’t be the same, but they both come from us and they would both be true colors. The more we accept our prism-like nature, the more free we become to create in different colors and the more we trust the inconsistent instincts we hold while making art. We don’t have to know why something is good or wonderful, if it’s the “right” decision or if it reflects us accurately. It is simply the light our prism emits naturally at this moment in time. Rick Rubinfrom ‘The Creative Act’Photo by Ruan Richard Rodrigues on Unsplash Join Our Weekly Mailing: www.turningtowards.life/subscribeSupport Us: www.buymeacoffee.com/turningtowardslife---Join Us Live in 2026Foundations of Integral Development Coaching, led by Lizzie and JustinSept 9-10 2026, Online, Book HereOur two-day immersive introduction to integral development coaching, led by Lizzie and Justin from Turning Towards Life. An opportunity to begin to learn to support others in deep, life giving discovery and development. You can read more 'Foundations' and book a place here:www.wearethirdspace.org/foundations-of-coachingYou can hear us talk about the philosophy of our coaching programmes here:www.turningtowards.life/coachingAnd our year-long Professional Coaching Course details are here:www.wearethirdspace.org/professional-coaching-courseTurning Towards Life Live Season 3, from September 2026Our Turning Towards Life live programme of community, learning and reflection runs in six month seasons, in person on Zoom once a month. We're very excited about it. A chance to expand beyond the bounds of a podcast into forming a community of learning and practice.You can find out more and join us here: www.turningtowards.life/live

We begin with Ella Dessington’s poem “Where Words Kneel” and reflect on freedom, trust, safety, belonging and the limits of language. How language is always provisional, changing as we use it and inquire into its meanings. How fixed definitions can distance us from our living experience, and how relationships can remain alive through return, listening, apology, openness and the willingness to let one another change. An invitation to slow down, question what’s certain and stay with ourselves and one another until language becomes gentle and humble enough to meet experience.This week is 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 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 in all the usual podcast places. Episode Overview00:00 Introduction 06:19 Ella's Poem: A Reflection on Language and Experience10:20 The Challenge of Language in Expressing Experience17:37 Speaking from Experience23:12 Change and Relationship29:25 Complexity and Reflection in Communication34:04 The Practice of Slowing DownOur source for this week:Where Words Kneel Freedom is a restless word. The moment we believe we have found it,it begins quietly building walls around itself.Not because freedom deceives us,but because language longs to settle,while life refuses to stay still. Trust follows close behind. We speak of it as though it were something earned,something possessed, something carefully placed between two people like a bridge.Yet every bridge eventually becomes a structure,and every structure forgets it was first imaginedto help someone cross. I keep wondering whether words sufferfrom the same temptation as empires. They arrive to serve, then slowly begin governing.Not with force, but with definition.Not with violence, but with certainty. Safety.Freedom.Trust.Belonging. Each begins as a living experience, until we ask it to carry more than any word can bear. And still,beneath all the naming,life keeps escaping. Relationship does not speak in nouns.It speaks in returns. In the hand that reaches again.In the apology that arrives tomorrow.In the silence that makes room instead of closing the door.In the quiet decision to remain available after certainty has left the room. So I wonder if freedom has never been the absence of constraint. I wonder whether freedom is what becomes possiblewhen neither of usis requiredto remainwho we werewhen we first began speaking. And I wonder whether listeninghas never been the search for better language. Maybe it is the slower practiceof staying with one anotheruntil language itself grows gentle enough, humble enough, to kneel before experience. Ella DessingtonPhoto by jason hu on Unsplash Join Our Weekly Mailing: www.turningtowards.life/subscribeSupport Us: www.buymeacoffee.com/turningtowardslife---Join Us Live in 2026Foundations of Integral Development Coaching, led by Lizzie and JustinSept 9-10 2026, Online, Book HereOur two-day immersive introduction to integral development coaching, led by Lizzie and Justin from Turning Towards Life. An opportunity to begin to learn to support others in deep, life giving discovery and development. You can read more 'Foundations' and book a place here:www.wearethirdspace.org/foundations-of-coachingYou can hear us talk about the philosophy of our coaching programmes here:www.turningtowards.life/coachingAnd our year-long Professional Coaching Course details are here:www.wearethirdspace.org/professional-coaching-courseTurning Towards Life Live Season 3, from September 2026Our Turning Towards Life live programme of community, learning and reflection runs in six month seasons, in person on Zoom once a month. We're very excited about it. A chance to expand beyond the bounds of a podcast into forming a community of learning and practice.You can find out more and join us here: www.turningtowards.life/live

In this episode of Turning Towards Life, we open into a conversation about living and dying, the memory of those who matter to us, presence, and love. Speaking from the freshness of recent losses, we explore how those we love can remain vividly alive in us, and how this can become a way of carrying them forward as a blessing.This week is 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 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 in all the usual podcast places. Episode Overview00:00 Welcome and the practice of being alive02:24 Poem: “To Be” by Roberta Morrow05:00 Grief, love, and Sylvia’s presence10:40 “May her memory be for a blessing”18:37 Practicing presence with those we love22:39 Old photos and making the past present28:51 Living as a blessing to others31:45 Closing reflections and gratitudeOur source for this week:To be. Wild in our arriving,We are born flesh of the forest. Held by the red of the earth,Carried by the bluest stream. Each day is the death of the last,Each morning a chance to be again. To be.To truly be.To press our hearts to the dirt,To hold our children fiercely. To laugh from the depths of our bellies until tears press at our seams. To look to the sky and know we will be guided by the wings of the wise hawk… To let our loved ones die.To hold them close as they die. Our love journeys with them,So they may be, again. Roberta MorrowPhoto by Dasha Urvachova on Unsplash Join Our Weekly Mailing: www.turningtowards.life/subscribeSupport Us: www.buymeacoffee.com/turningtowardslife---Join Us Live in 2026Foundations of Integral Development Coaching, led by Lizzie and JustinSept 9-10 2026, Online, Book HereOur two-day immersive introduction to integral development coaching, led by Lizzie and Justin from Turning Towards Life. An opportunity to begin to learn to support others in deep, life giving discovery and development. You can read more 'Foundations' and book a place here:www.wearethirdspace.org/foundations-of-coachingYou can hear us talk about the philosophy of our coaching programmes here:www.turningtowards.life/coachingAnd our year-long Professional Coaching Course details are here:www.wearethirdspace.org/professional-coaching-courseTurning Towards Life Live Season 3, from September 2026Our Turning Towards Life live programme of community, learning and reflection runs in six month seasons, in person on Zoom once a month. We're very excited about it. A chance to expand beyond the bounds of a podcast into forming a community of learning and practice.You can find out more and join us here: www.turningtowards.life/live----

Following a very welcome request from a listener, we return to a conversation about the strength to be open and affected by others, to reshape ourselves from what we receive, and to influence others only after being influenced by them. And how that capacity underpins trustability, the extension of safety to one another, purpose, and staying-with appropriately in each kind of relationship.This week is 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 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 in all the usual podcast places. Episode Overview00:00 Continuing the conversation on relational power05:40 This week's source09:38 Recognition, commitment, and change17:30 Purpose in relationship21:23 Making room for sense making26:17 Strength, repair, and time29:03 From safety to trustability35:11 Keeping the questions openOur source for this week:It is not our power to remain unaffected, or even the power to control others, that makes our lives richer and more valuable. It is our amazing capacity to be affected by the incredible richness and complexity of the relational web in which we live… Relational power includes three components: (1) the ability to be actively open and affected by the world around us; (2) the ability to create ourselves out of what we have taken in; and (3) the ability to influence those around us by first having been affected by them… Everything actual exercises some power - either to affect or be affected. [But] there is a crucial, life-shaping difference between the power to control others and the strength that enables us to be active and open to the world around us. There is an equally vital difference between the power to control others by shutting them out of our lives and the power to engage the lives of others in ways that enrich us all… The world of the individual who can be influenced by another without losing his or her identity or freedom is larger than the world of the individual who fears being influenced. The stature of the individual who can let another exist in her or his own creative freedom is larger than the size of the individual who insists that others must conform to their own purposes and understandings. From Process Relational Philosophy, Chapter 8 on ‘Relational Power’,by C Robert MeslePhoto by Yuri Antonenko on Unsplash---Join Us Live in 2026Foundations of Integral Development Coaching, led by Lizzie and JustinSept 9-10 2026, Online, Book HereOur two-day immersive introduction to integral development coaching, led by Lizzie and Justin from Turning Towards Life. An opportunity to begin to learn to support others in deep, life giving discovery and development. You can read more 'Foundations' and book a place here:www.wearethirdspace.org/foundations-of-coachingYou can hear us talk about the philosophy of our coaching programmes here:www.turningtowards.life/coachingAnd our year-long Professional Coaching Course details are here:www.wearethirdspace.org/professional-coaching-courseTurning Towards Life Live Season 3, from September 2026Our Turning Towards Life live programme of community, learning and reflection runs in six month seasons, in person on Zoom once a month. We're very excited about it. A chance to expand beyond the bounds of a podcast into forming a community of learning and practice.You can find out more and join us here: www.turningtowards.life/live---- About Turning Towards LifeTurning 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 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, Amazon Music and Spotify.Join Our Weekly Mailing: www.turningtowards.life/subscribeSupport Us: www.buymeacoffee.com/turningtowardslife

On presence, embodiment, and choosing life-giving attention in the midst of our lives. How we might transform our experience into ‘drops of sunlight’ that help us stay in contact with life as we meet despair and the counterfeit comforts that promise relief but leave us diminished. An invitation to notice what brings freedom and love, both within ourselves and in relationship with others.This week is 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 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 in all the usual podcast places. Our source for this week:Cast All Your Votes For DancingI know the voice of depressionStill calls to you.I know those habits that can ruin your lifeStill send their invitations.But you are with the Friend nowAnd look so much stronger.You can stay that wayAnd even bloom!Keep squeezing drops of the SunFrom your prayers and work and musicAnd from your companions’ beautiful laughter.Keep squeezing drops of the SunFrom the sacred hands and glance of your BelovedAnd, my dear,From the most insignificant movementsOf your own holy body.Learn to recognize the counterfeit coinsThat may buy you just a moment of pleasure,But then drag you for daysLike a broken manBehind a farting camel.You are with the Friend now.Learn what actions of yours delight Him,What actions of yours bring freedomAnd Love.Whenever you say God’s name, dear pilgrim,My ears wish my head was missingSo they could finally kiss each otherAnd applaud all your nourishing wisdom!O keep squeezing drops of the SunFrom your prayers and work and musicAnd from your companions’ beautiful laughterAnd from the most insignificant movementsOf your own holy body.Now, sweet one,Be wise.Cast all your votes for Dancing! HafizTranslated by Daniel LadinskyPhoto by Javier Allegue Barros on Unsplash‍       ‍ ---Join Us Live in 2026Foundations of Integral Development Coaching, led by Lizzie and JustinSept 9-10 2026, Online, Book HereOur two-day immersive introduction to integral development coaching, led by Lizzie and Justin from Turning Towards Life. An opportunity to begin to learn to support others in deep, life giving discovery and development. You can read more 'Foundations' and book a place here:www.wearethirdspace.org/foundations-of-coachingYou can hear us talk about the philosophy of our coaching programmes here:www.turningtowards.life/coachingAnd our year-long Professional Coaching Course details are here:www.wearethirdspace.org/professional-coaching-courseTurning Towards Life Live Season 3, from September 2026Our Turning Towards Life live programme of community, learning and reflection runs in six month seasons, in person on Zoom once a month. We're very excited about it. A chance to expand beyond the bounds of a podcast into forming a community of learning and practice.You can find out more and join us here: www.turningtowards.life/live---- About Turning Towards LifeTurning 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 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, Amazon Music and Spotify.Join Our Weekly Mailing: www.turningtowards.life/subscribeSupport Us: www.buymeacoffee.com/turningtowardslife