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\n"The opposite of life is not death", writes Caitlin Johnstone, "The opposite of life is habit." So how, we wonder in this conversation, can we invest the ordinariness of life with the reverence and awe that calls to us? How might we find that aspect of ourselves, in our vast inner landscapes, that is neither our reactivity nor our defensiveness, but is itself life looking out at life in wonder? This episode of Turning Towards Life is a conversation about the difficult and liberating possibility of choosing to live in the midst of all that we might turn away from, hosted as always by Lizzie Winn and Justin Wise of Thirdspace.
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\n\n\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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\n\n\nOur source this week is brought to us by Lizzie, and written by Caitlin Johnstone.
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\n\n\n\nThe Alive Ones
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\n\n\n\nThe opposite of life is not death.
\nThe opposite of life is habit.
\nOne who moves from cradle to grave
\nin the flip book illusion we call time
\nwithout deeply attending to this cavalcade of miracles
\nis one who never lived.
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\n\n\n\nLifeless are they who live by habit,
\nwho walk by habit,
\nwho sit by habit,
\nwho see by habit,
\nwho think by habit,
\nwho feel by habit.
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\n\n\n\nLifeless are they who drift through on dead patterns
\ninstead of giving the omnipresent Holiness its due reverence.
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\n\n\n\nThe alive ones meet each moment
\nlike a dog greets its master at the door after work.
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\n\n\n\nThey do not think: they wonder.
\nThey do not watch: they marvel.
\nThey do not walk: they adventure.
\nThey do not sit: they engage.
\nThey do not wait: they worship.
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\n\n\n\nAwe was never meant to be exceptional.
\nAwe is the only sane response to this mess.
\nThe alive ones know this.
\nThe alive ones live this.
\nThe mundane does not exist for them.
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\n\n\n\nThe ordinary is a fairy tale told by the lifeless
\nto which the alive listen with rapt fasciation.
\nThey take in breath with the passion of a lover in bed.
\nThey entertain light in their retinas like a beloved guest.
\nThey merrily lose every war with the world.
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\n\n\n\nThey dance without music in the frozen food aisle.
\nThey go out into the rain with bare feet and empty wine glasses.
\nThey greet every experience with exuberant curiosity,
\nand as death approaches it receives that same greeting.
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\n\n\n\nAnd when they are gone those they leave behind
\nwill be saddened but fulfilled,
\nand so very grateful,
\nto have known one who truly showed up here.
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\n\n\n\nCaitlin Johnstone
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\n\n\nPhoto by Robert Collins on Unsplash
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