281: The Only Two Directions

Published: Feb. 27, 2023, 3:16 p.m.

'There are only two directions,' writes Quinn Bailey, 'towards and away'. Towards our lives or away from them. Towards life itself, or away from it. But is it always a choice? And when it is a choice, how do we go about even noticing which we are choosing? And what is it to act in harmony with life's longing for us, what with all the complex shaping forces within us and around us that can sometimes be so hard to comprehend, let alone work with?

This week's Turning Towards Life is hosted, as always, by Lizzie Winn and Justin Wise of Thirdspace.


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:

The Only Two Directions

This world has only two true directions:
Towards and away.
The big fear, in the end, is to awake and find that
You chose away.
That the hand
Which held you down
Was none other
Than your own.
Remember
The pursuit
Of that which is not truly us
Renders even the most
Powerful vision useless
Recognize
When the boulder in front of the cave begins to shift
When that first illuminating shaft
Pierces the dark
Do not hesitate long
Do not waste time
Anticipating the griefs
Yet to come
They cannot be helped and perhaps are necessary
On that long
And awkward walk
Towards yourself

by Quinn Bailey

Photo by Zoltan Tasi on Unsplash