Stay Like Clay, Episode 316
There are so many reasons to harden ourselves to the world. But what we long for, in ourselves, from one another, is for our ‘clenched fists to unfurl, ready to hold whatever small things drop inside’.
It’s not the easiest thing to do when our worlds are filled with hurt and pain, or when we are feeling tender and fragile. So how might we begin? And help one another stay open?
This week's Turning Towards Life is hosted, as always, by Lizzie Winn and Justin Wise of Thirdspace.
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Here’s our source for this week:
Stay Like Clay
How we want hard things to soften
and change right away, for frost
to lift off stiff blades of grass
before the summer green can fade,
and for a gentle rain to prevail over
sleet that coasts each leaf left
clinging to gleaming black branches.
For the furrowed brow of a loved one
to smooth back into a smile,
and for every clenched fist to unfurl
into a small bowl, ready to hold
whatever small thing falls inside.
Maybe the trick is never to harden
in the first place, to stay like clay
outside the kiln, willing to be
molded, reshaped by the rough
and tender hands of this world.
James Crews
www.jamescrews.net