396: Loving Those Who Are Gone

Turning Towards Life - a Thirdspace podcast

What remains when someone we love is no longer physically with us? A conversation exploring the tension between doubt and the feeling that something continues beyond what we can see or touch. How we might speak to those who are gone, even when their ears and hearts seem to no longer exist, by voicing our love and sorrow—whether heard or not—a way in which we change both the world and our wounded hearts. And honouring the mysterious space where truth and our departed loved ones might still exist. Turning away from these deeper dimensions might be why we feel so disconnected, while embracing them offers a way to move through life with an open heart, receiving what remains precious beyond time and distance.
You can find out more about the Thirdspace Professional Coaching Course 2025-26 on the Thirdspace website wearethirdspace.org
This week’s conversation is hosted, as always, by Lizzie Winn and Justin Wise of Thirdspace.
Episode Overview
00:00 Introduction
03:18 This Week's Source by Nick Cave
09:04 Love, Death, and Paying Attention
16:54 Allowing Ourselves to be Uncertain
22:01 Gratitude and Reflection on the Conversation
Here's our source for this week:
Red Hand Files #323, May 2025

My dad died suddenly and unexpectedly. We moved and only saw him for two weeks of what turned out to be his last year on earth. Now I feel like I have failed him so terribly. How do you apologize to someone who is gone? How do you say I love you and I’m so sorry when their ears and their heart don’t exist anymore?
AMY, LOS ANGELES, USA
You can find the rest of the source on Nick Cave's Red Hand Files website here
https://www.theredhandfiles.com/sudden-death-apologise-spiritual-intuition/

by Nick Cave
Photo by Road Ahead on Unsplash
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About Turning Towards Life
Turning Towards Life, a week-by-week conversation inviting us deeply into our lives, is a live 30 minute conversation hosted by Justin Wise and Lizzie Winn of Thirdspace. Find us on FaceBook to watch live and 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 on Apple, Google, Amazon Music and Spotify.

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Podcast Keywords:
spiritual intuition, grief processing, subtle presence, communion practice, emotional reconciliation, love declaration, sacred mystery, physical absence, soul calling, emergent belief, universal declaration, ordinary world, mysterious presence, heartfelt practice, spiritual recognition, cynicism rejection, living relationship, parent-child connection, grief healing, unsettled mystery, love endurance, existential comfort, reconciliation practice, softened receptivity