298: A Vast Net of Kindness

As the poet Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer teaches us, even as the whole world can seem to be falling, we have a choice whether to contribute to isolation and fear or to a vast net of generosity and kindness in which we hold one another. Perhaps when we feel most afraid and most isolated, it's the time to ask ourselves the other side of the question too - are we willing to receive and be open to the support that's there? Because our turning away from receiving is also our turning away from giving.



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:



Safety Net



This morning I woke

thinking of all the people I love

and all the people they love

and how big the net

of lovers. It felt so clear,

all those invisible ties

interwoven like silken threads

strong enough to make a mesh

that for thousands of years

has been woven and rewoven

to catch us all.

Sometimes we go on

as if we forget

about it. Believing only

in the fall. But the net

is just as real. Every day,

with every small kindness,

with every generous act,

we strengthen it. Notice,

even now, how

as the whole world

seems to be falling, it

is there for us as we

walk the day’s tightrope,

how every tie matters.



By Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer

from her newest book ‘All the Honey’