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\nWe all carry wounds and hurts with us into our lives, and we present them to the world in our longing to be seen and to be healed. Perhaps when our hurts are so easily 'out front' we shouldn't be surprised at how often we each get triggered into self-protective and defensive patterns which are at odds with our deeper intentions and longings. But if we could find a way to support one another in hearing not just the wounds but the steady pulse of life that flows beneath all our hurts? This episode of Turning Towards Life is a conversation about being with one another in a way that welcomes all of us home, hosted as always by Lizzie Winn and Justin Wise of Thirdspace.
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\nThis 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. We\u2019re also on YouTube, and as a podcast on Apple, Google and Spotify. You can find videos of every episode, and more about the project on the Turning Towards Life website.
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\nOur source this week is brought to us by Lizzie, and is written by Carrie Newcomer:
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\n\n\n\nThe Shape of a Heart
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\n\n\nThere are stands of beech trees
\nCovering the hills around my home.
\nThey are old companions
\nWith bodies like sturdy elephant legs,
\nSmooth and grey
\nWith so many wrinkled eyes.
\nWillowy when young,
\nStraight and stately as they age.
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\n\n\nI laid my hands on one these trees last evening.
\nFlat palmed like a Baptist blessing
\nPutting my ear to the bark
\nListening for that steady pulse.
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\n\n\nThere is a charred hole about thirty feet up,
\nThe evidence of something long-ago
\nA crash of thunder
\nA lightning strike
\nA natural event
\nA blameless bit of bad luck
\nThat over time has mostly grown over,
\nTransforming an open wound
\nInto an open space,
\nShaped exactly like a heart.\n\n
\nIt is a miracle she survived,
\nLiving with and then living into
\nHer most devastating wound,
\nWhich the slow process of healing,
\nCreated something singular
\nUtterly striking
\nHead scratching wondrous
\nEven beautiful.
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\n\n\nWe stood there together
\nIn a quiet kind of kinship,
\nUnconcerned about the ash,
\nGiving off the faint smell of ozone,
\nListening to the rustle of leaves
\nNodding as the golden light
\nSlipped over the ridge.
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\n\n\n\nby Carrie Newcomer
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\n\n\nPhoto by Anastasia Vityukova on Unsplash\n