Until I Thought of Myself as the Sea, Episode 424

Written By Justin Wise
 

On the astonishing power of metaphors to reframe our sense of who we are, what’s possible, and how we might hear and speak with one another… and on the ocean’s vastness and depth as a invitation for us to contain multitudes, especially when in the midst of our most challenging conversations.

This week’s conversation is hosted, as always, by Lizzie Winn and Justin Wise of Thirdspace.

Episode Overview
00:00 Introduction and Context Setting
03:05 Exploring the Poem: 'Until I Thought of Myself as the Sea'
05:58 The Ocean Metaphor: Embracing Complexity
09:05 The Power of Metaphor in Self-Understanding
11:47 Widening Perspectives: The Ocean as a Shared Experience
14:52 Navigating Difficult Conversations with Oceanic Awareness
17:50 Truth and Multiplicity: The Ocean of Perspectives
20:59 Systems Thinking: The Ocean of Relationships
24:02 Conclusion and Reflection

Here’s our source for this week:

Until I thought of myself as the sea

I used to separate good days from bad until
I thought of myself as an ocean. I used to
split times I felt strong from when I felt weak
until I imagined myself as the sea. Calm and
rocky, wild and soft, still and powerful and vast
and more than any one thing. In the ocean it's
hard to divorce one mood from another, one wave
from the next. Now, on my worst days, I think
of how good life is too, how I still can greet joy
while swimming through grief. How fragile
strength feels. How I'm not any one thing in any
one moment on any one day. I'm all of it and
all of it is me.

Hannah Rosenberg
@hannahrowrites

Photo by Sean Oulashin on Unsplash

#pcc

Justin Wise
Next

Be Your Self, Episode 423