321: The Small Things That Carry Love

When any of us - or all of us - face a tectonic shift in our lives, through a birth or a death, a change in circumstances, or a calamity in the world, it can be hard to know how to respond. We easily overcomplicate, or turn away because we don’t know what to do.



But what if the most necessary response in difficult times - and the one that cultivates the best in us - was the simplest… taking care of one another through the simple, practical, almost-invisible small things?



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.



Here’s our source for this week:



The small things that carry love 



When I gave birth for the first time,

My daughter washing up on the shores of my world 

With such newness and raw need 

And so many questions swimming in her eyes,

I remember not knowing which way was up. Or who I was or what anything was. 



I felt like I needed something huge,

Some great pair of hands to scoop me up and help me find a way to be in this new world I had been ushered into so slowly and suddenly. I needed a plan for my whole life. How to keep her safe, how to live, how to be this new version of myself that didn’t fit yet. 



And here’s what I remember. 



I remember my mum changing the bin for me and folding a pile of laundry. 



I remember my husband bringing me dark chocolate and a cup of tea and letting me sleep for half an hour. 



I remember these small things because these are the things that mattered most while the tectonic plates shifted inside me. 



Small, practical, kind things that don’t require any words or thinking or explaining or responding to. 



The small things that whisper ‘you’re okay, the world is still slow and gentle and made of daily tasks; it will wait for you.’ 



And so now, when I find myself on the other end of 

another’s great crossing of some invisible line - the 

death of someone or the birth, or any slow, sudden 

change that can come in any number of ways, 

I have learned to trust that the love I feel and the 

goodness I want to express

will best flow towards this one I love 



Through the simple, practical, almost-invisible 



small

things.



Hollie Holden





Photo by rajat sarki on Unsplash