Being open to the world, to experience, to being changed by what's around us and within us, may be one of the great human capacities, and precisely what allows us to make community and relationship, and to respond with wisdom, creativity and love to the challenges and gifts of our times. But it's greatly diminished by that in us which wants to manipulate and control, which insists on reducing to right and wrong, and the impulse in us which demands certainty. Those qualities are needed, indeed, but as support to our openness rather than as a way of dominating it. So how do we stay open to life as it happens? And how do we keep ourselves from closing down?

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 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 and Spotify.



You can find out more about our Professional Coaching Course, which we talk a little about in this episode, on the Thirdspace website here.



Here's our source for this week:



What Open Means



To be open means receptive,

able to be touched.

Open means undefended,

with an inner "yes" resounding

loud and clear. It means

really being here, present

and awake. Open means willing

to take the moment in.

It is a choice, a discipline,

a surrender of my being

to the truth. Open is a state

of mind, a way of life,

a refusal to close down.

Imagine a flower in full bloom.

In your mind's eye, see a tree

with leaves that welcome in

the sunlight. See the night sky

filled with stars and empty spaces.

I pray to be that open today,

with plenty of room for the

mystery to fill. I pray to be

so open the universe spills in,

pours out, and leaves me

drenched in wonder.



Danna Faulds



Photo: Katerina Pavlyuchkova | Unsplash