Breaking Open, Episode 464
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.
Hosted as always by Lizzie Winn and Justin Wise of Thirdspace.
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