Chasing after what we want so badly - from our friends and other relationships - can make it infuriatingly difficult to have and be what we most need. Can we find a way to move towards our longings also find out that although there is much that we might legimately want and long for, the act of receiving and giving right here, in the midst of where we already are, can so often bring us much that we really need. In the process of cultivating a steady reciprocity of receiving and giving we can become a person who meets the truer needs of those around us. The metaphor of the water wheel, in its steady turn of giving and receiving, has much to stir our imagination in this regard, as Rumi teaches us in this week's luminous source.



This week’s conversation is hosted, as always, by Lizzie Winn and Justin Wise of Thirdspace.



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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.



Episode Overview

00:00 Introduction and Welcoming the Audience

02:53 Exploring Rumi's 'The Water Wheel'

05:55 Curiosity and Aliveness in Relationships

08:55 The Nature of Friendship and Reciprocity

11:53 Receiving and Giving in Life

15:10 The Balance of Stillness and Movement

17:53 Desires and the Journey of Staying Present

21:08 The Invitation to Stay Together

24:00 Conclusion and Reflection on the Conversation



Here's our source for this week:



The Waterwheel



Stay together, friends.

Don’t scatter and sleep.



Our friendship is made

of being awake.



The waterwheel accepts water

and turns and gives it away,

weeping.



That way it stays in the garden,

whereas another roundness rolls

through a dry riverbed looking

for what it thinks it wants.



Stay here, quivering with each moment

like a drop of mercury.



Rumi



Photo by Jonathan Wheeler on Unsplash