A couple of books by Parker J Palmer

[Ollie]

A couple of books by Parker J Palmer – ‘A Hidden Wholeness’ and ‘Let Your Life Speak - Listening for the Voice of Vocation’.

In another thread I made the following post (part of it is reproduced here):

Hi, Hildagarda.
Fwiw, you may also want to check out the Quaker process of a Clearness Committee for some ideas.

http://www.couragerenewal.org/parker/writings/clearness-committee

Powerful technique, I have never heard of before. I wonder if it could be used in the Work? Hmmm.

It’s actually very similar to what we have been doing in QFS for years now. It is partially operational here on the forum though due to privacy issues, it cannot be implemented fully. I’m surprised you didn’t recognize it as “The Mirror” which is always preceded by questions. (Or should be.)

I read the above-mentioned article and it so resonated with me that I read the referenced book - A Hidden Wholeness by Parker J Palmer. …

A Hidden Wholeness by Parker J Palmer.
In summary, as well as a chapter on Creating Circles of Trust – clearness committee and mirroring - the book is about ‘The journey toward an undivided life’, of ‘Welcoming the soul and weaving community in a wounded world’. It offers insights into where we are at, and guidance for finding what it is that we seek, both within ourselves and with each other. You could say that this is part of what we are doing here in the Forum.

I so thoroughly enjoyed reading this book that I subsequently read Let Your Life Speak - Listening for the Voice of Vocation.

Let Your Life Speak by Parker J Palmer
As a summary, I take this from the inside book covers as it is a good synopsis:

”Is the life I am living the same as the life that wants to live in me?” With this searching question, Parker Palmer begins an insightful and moving meditation on finding one’s true calling. Let Your Life Speak is an openhearted gift to anyone who seeks to live authentically.

The books title is a time-honored Quaker admonition, usually taken to mean “Let the highest truths and values guide everything you do.” But Palmer reinterprets those words, drawing on his own search for selfhood. “Before you tell your life what you intend to do with it,” he writes, “listen for what it intends to do with you. Before you tell your life what truths and values you have decided to live up to, let your life tell you what truths you embody, what values you represent.”

Vocation does not come from willfulness, no matter how noble one’s intentions. It comes from listening to and accepting “true self” with its limits as well as its potentials. Sharing stories of frailty and strength, of darkness and light, Palmer shows that vocation is not a goal to be achieved but a gift to be received.

As we live more deeply into the selfhood that is our birthright gift, we find not only personal fulfillment. We find communion with others and ways of serving the world’s deepest needs.

Parker J Palmer is easy to read, a lot of what he says resonates with me, and, there is much that we may learn from these books, or not.