Hokusai Says, Episode 85

 

Underneath everything, beneath our striving and reaching and fear, life is finding a way through us. What happens when we pay attention to it, when we let life take us by the hand?

Here’s Episode 85 of 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 AppleGoogle and Spotify.

In this conversation we explore the simple beauty of life that's present even when we're most afraid. We consider together what it is that most dignifies and deepens our lives - the possibility that we might start to pay attention, and that we might let life itself, and our care, matter. Our inspiration for this conversation comes from a poem by Roger Keyes about the Japanese artist Hokusai.


Hokusai Says

Hokusai says Look carefully.

He says pay attention, notice.

He says keep looking, stay curious.

He says there is no end to seeing.

He says Look Forward to getting old.

He says keep changing,

you just get more who you really are.

He says get stuck, accept it, repeat yourself

as long as it’s interesting.

He says keep doing what you love.

He says keep praying.

He says every one of us is a child,

every one of us is ancient,

every one of us has a body.

He says every one of us is frightened.

He says every one of us has to find a way to live with fear.

He says everything is alive—

shells, buildings, people, fish, mountains, trees.

Wood is alive.

Water is alive.

Everything has its own life.

Everything lives inside us.

He says live with the world inside you.

He says it doesn’t matter if you draw, or write books.

It doesn’t matter if you saw wood, or catch fish.

It doesn’t matter if you sit at home

and stare at the ants on your verandah or the shadows of the trees

and grasses in your garden.

It matters that you care.

It matters that you feel.

It matters that you notice.

It matters that life lives through you.

Contentment is life living through you.

Joy is life living through you.

Satisfaction and strength

are life living through you.

Peace is life living through you.

He says don’t be afraid.

Don’t be afraid.

Look, feel, let life take you by the hand.

Let life live through you.

– Roger Keyes


great_wave_off_kanagawa2.jpg

The Great Wave off Kanagawa, Katsushika Hokusai, c. 1829-1833

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The Cure, Episode 86

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The Call to Live Everything, Episode 84