Breaking Open

A conversation about meeting one another's 'falling apart', the cultural pressure to stay buttoned up, the fertile potential hidden inside our moments of undoing, and what it means to be a person who can welcome and hold space for another's becoming rather than trying to put the lid back on. How genuine care for another might involve staying faithful to the life inside them, which is something deeper than their current circumstances, their current identity, or the version of them we first fell in love with.

This week is hosted as always by Lizzie Winn and Justin Wise of Thirdspace.

This is 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 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 in all the usual podcast places.

Episode Overview
00:00 Welcome
02:56 Exploring Total Breakdown by Chelan Harkin
05:52 Embracing Undoing
09:05 Cultural Norms and Fears
12:09 Keeping It Together vs. Falling Apart
15:03 Finding Safe Spaces for Breaking Apart
18:04 Context and Timing in Personal Growth
20:56 Creating Relational Safety for Vulnerability
24:01 The Moral Responsibility in Relationships
27:13 The Power of Seeing Each Other's Life
30:06 Conclusion and Invitation to Engage

Our source for this week:

Total Breakdown

June 2026 (Vol. XXXIX, No. 6)

"She's having a total breakdown,"
one put together
and very self-satisfied seed
with no cracks in it
whispered to another
about a third seed who had begun
to germinate.

"She's completely falling apart—
her life is a mess!"

They gazed superiorly
at the smooth, intact facade
of their shells
so perfectly upholding
expectations of the status quo.
Clearly, compared to that wild,
sprouting seed
disrupting the peace,
they were doing something right...right?

But now and then,
they secretly looked up
with longing at the tall-stemmed,
bravely opened flower
wondering if there might be
more to themselves.

Chelan Harkin, from WILD GRACE: POEMS
poetrycooperative.org/chelan-harkin

Photo by David Clode on Unsplash

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