What happens when we widen our perspective to view our individual lives as part of an endless flow of generations? How do we honour both the weight of our immediate concerns and the liberation that comes from seeing them as moments in an infinite tapestry?  How might we practice radical amazement at the extraordinary nature of existence itself? What if our most profound joy emerges not from escaping life's difficulties but from embracing them while remembering the timeless quality beneath our temporal experience—that mysterious essence which precedes our birth and continues beyond our death? Perhaps our original light-heartedness—that which we carried as children—offers a way forward, now transformed by time and sorrow into something deeper.



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



You can join our Episode 400 Live, 8 June 2025, here



Episode Overview

00:00 Introduction and Announcing Episode 400 Live on June 8

05:13 Exploring the Poem: 'Two Set Out on Their Journey'

09:56 Finding Out We Are Not Alone

14:58 Navigating Grief and Impermanence

20:03 Radical Amazement and Bigger Horizons of Time

25:11 The Journey of Life and the Light Heart

30:04 Conclusion and Reflection



Two Set Out On Their Journey

We sit side by side,

brother and sister, and read

the book of what will be, while a breeze

blows the pages over—

desolate odd, cheerful even,

and otherwise. When we come

to our own story, the happy beginning,

the ending we don’t know yet,

the ten thousand acts

encumbering the days between,

we will read every page of it.

If an ancestor has pressed

a love-flower for us, it will lie hidden

between pages of the slow going,

where only those who adore the story

ever read. When the time comes

to shut the book and set out,

we will take childhood’s laughter

as far as we can into the days to come,

until another laughter sounds back

from the place where our next bodies

will have risen and will be telling

tales of what seemed deadly serious once,

offering to us oldening wayfarers

the light heart, now made of time

and sorrow, that we started with.



Galway Kinnell



Photo by Hoi An Photographer on Unsplash



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Join Us Live in 2025



Episode 400 Live, June 8 2025

On Sunday 8th June 2025 it will be our 400th episode and we are planning a Turning Towards Life live gathering on Zoom. You're all very welcome to join. It will be a wonderful opportunity to meet us and to meet others. You can book a place for Episode 400 Live on June 8 here.



Turning Towards Life Live Season 1, from September 2025

We also have the launch of our Turning Towards Life live programme which is going to run in six month seasons from September. It's going to be in person on Zoom once a month. We're very excited about it. A chance to expand beyond the bounds of a podcast into forming a community of learning and practice. You can register your interest for Season 1 of Turning Towards Life Live here.



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About Turning Towards Life

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.



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