What Open Means, Episode 224
Being open to the world, to experience, to being changed by what's around us and within us, may be one of the great human capacities, and precisely what allows us to make community and relationship, and to respond with wisdom, creativity and love to the challenges and gifts of our times.
But it's greatly diminished by that in us which wants to manipulate and control, which insists on reducing to right and wrong, and the impulse in us which demands certainty. Those qualities are needed, indeed, but as support to our openness rather than as a way of dominating it. So how do we stay open to life as it happens? And how do we keep ourselves from closing down?
This week's Turning Towards Life is a conversation about the practice of standing in our lives prayerfully and willingly, hosted as always by Lizzie Winn and Justin Wise of Thirdspace.
You can find out more about our Professional Coaching Course, which we talk a little about in this episode, on the Thirdspace website here.
What Open Means
To be open means receptive,
able to be touched.
Open means undefended,
with an inner "yes" resounding
loud and clear. It means
really being here, present
and awake. Open means willing
to take the moment in.
It is a choice, a discipline,
a surrender of my being
to the truth. Open is a state
of mind, a way of life,
a refusal to close down.
Imagine a flower in full bloom.
In your mind's eye, see a tree
with leaves that welcome in
the sunlight. See the night sky
filled with stars and empty spaces.
I pray to be that open today,
with plenty of room for the
mystery to fill. I pray to be
so open the universe spills in,
pours out, and leaves me
drenched in wonder.
Danna Faulds
Photo: Katerina Pavlyuchkova | Unsplash