Being Held: Desire, Listening, and the Wish That Knows the Way
Welcome to Treehouse Treasures! In our episode today, we explore a gentle and deeply human inquiry: What happens when we listen to desire—not as something to suppress or fix, but as a form of living intelligence guiding us toward what we truly need?
Drawing from a spontaneous, serendipitous reading of The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know Is Possible by Charles Eisenstein, this offering invites us into a softer relationship with longing, pain, and pleasure. Rather than viewing desire as dangerous or selfish, Eisenstein reframes it as a messenger—often arising from unmet needs that are asking to be seen, honored, and tended with care.
You’ll hear a reading from the chapter “Struggle,” followed by reflections on how pain and pleasure function not as opposites, but as companions—doorways that help us discern what is life-giving, meaningful, and true. Through this lens, pleasure becomes information, pain becomes guidance, and listening becomes a sacred act of self-trust.
The episode also introduces a contemplative practice called Wishes Fulfilled—a simple yet profound way of listening inwardly, naming what is quietly longed for, and entrusting it without force or demand. This practice is not about controlling outcomes, but about cultivating a relationship with life itself—one rooted in trust, responsiveness, and care.
Throughout the episode, we widen the notion of relationship beyond the purely human, remembering that we are held by many forms of presence: nature, breath, silence, compassion, creative intelligence, and the unseen field that listens as deeply as it is listened to.
This is an invitation to slow down, soften the inner grip, and remember:
You are not wrong for wishing.
You are not weak for desiring.
You are not broken for longing.
May this listening support you in feeling held—and in becoming a gentle holding presence in the world.
May All Beings Be Free. May All Beings Be Safe. May All Beings be Held. With Love and Warm Hugs!
