Soul Food - The Power of the Way, Episode 29

In this episode Lizzie and Justin read and talk about 'Soul Food', a chapter of the 'The Way and the Power of the Way' by Ursula Le Guin.

Together we explore the ways in which certainty can make us rigid and closed to the world and to one another, how we try (unsuccessfully) to make the world and others into our own image (a huge part of the societal struggles we're in at this time in history), and how the simple act of learning to load the dishwasher together can be a path towards the kind of humility and openness that's life giving and makes for profound and responsive relationship. Along the way we come to a new understanding of what the name of our coaching company 'thirdspace' might mean, and how coaching can be a way of helping ourselves and others open ever more fully to life.




Soul Food

Everybody on earth knowing
that beauty is beautiful
makes ugliness.

Everybody knowing
that goodness is good
makes wickedness.

For being and non being
arise together;
hard and easy
complete each other;
long and short shape each other;
high and low
depend on each other;
note and voice
make the music together;
before and after
follow each other.

That’s why the wise soul
does without doing,
teaches without talking.

The things of this world
exist, they are;
you can’t refuse them.

To bear and not to own;
to act and not lay claim;
to do the work and let it go;
for just letting it go
is what makes it stay.

– Ursula LeGuin - from ‘Tao Te Ching: The Way and The Power of The Way

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Even The Word 'Obstacle' is an Obstacle, Episode 30

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The Paradox of Change, Episode 28