137: If We Were No Longer Pushing

How about we find a way to live without permanently being annoyed that things aren't just as we'd like them? Might that not be a path to some joy? Could we give up the way we exhaust ourselves (and often others!) by our attempts to push life around, to control it, to have things just our way? A conversation about creativity, relationship, what happens when we let ourselves fall into life, and giving up trying to herd cats, with Lizzie Winn and Justin Wise of Thirdspace.



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. We’re 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.

Our source for this week is written by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, from her book 'Naked for Tea', and brought to us by Justin.

Perhaps it would eventually erode, but...

Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer



That rock that we

have been pushing up

the hill—that one



that keeps rolling back down

and we keep pushing

back up—what if



we stopped? We are not

Sisyphus. This rock

is not a punishment.



It’s something we’ve chosen

to push. Who knows why.

I look at all the names



we once carved into

its sedimentary sides.

How important



I thought they were,

those names. How

I’ve clung to labels,



who’s right, who’s wrong,

how I’ve cared about

who’s pushed harder



and who’s been slack.

Now all I want

is to let the rock



roll back to where it belongs,

which is wherever it lands,

and you and I could,



imagine!, walk unencumbered,

all the way to the top and

walk and walk and never stop



except to discover what

our hands might do

if for once they were no longer



pushing.



www.wordwoman.com

Photo by Pablo Heimplatz on Unsplash