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More
from and about
Parker J. Palmer
(biographical info at bottom of page) |
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Embracing
the mystery of depression does not mean passivity or resignation.
It means moving into a field of forces that seems alien but is in
fact one's
deepest self. It means waiting, watching, listening,
suffering, and gathering
whatever self-knowledge one can--and then making choices based on
that
knowledge, no matter how difficult. One begins the slow walk
back to health
by choosing each day things that enliven one's selfhood and
resisting things
that do not.
Let Your Life Speak |
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Fear
is so fundamental to the human condition that all the great
spiritual traditions originate in an effort to overcome its
effects on our lives. With different words, they all
proclaim the same core message: "Be not afraid."
Though the traditions vary widely in the ways they propose to take
us beyond fear, all hold out the same hope: we can escape
fear's paralysis and enter a state of grace where encounters with
otherness will not threaten us but will enrich our work and our
lives.
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Mystery surrounds every deep experience of
the human heart; the closer we get to the ultimate mystery of God. But
our culture wants to turn mysteries into puzzles to be explained or problems to
be solved, because maintaining the illusion that we can "straighten things
out" makes us feel powerful. Yet mysteries never yield to solutions
or fixes--and when we pretend that they do, life becomes not only more banal,
but also more hopeless, because the fixes never work.
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Our
deepest calling is to grow into our own authentic selfhood,
whether or not it conforms to some image of who we ought to
be. As we do so, we will not only find the joy that
every human being seeks-- we will also find our path of
authentic service in the world.
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Like
every gift given, this one returns as a gift to the giver:
when we learn how to listen more deeply to others, we can listen
more deeply to ourselves. This may be the most important
result of the unconventional speaking and listening that go on in
a circle of trust.
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Christmas
is a reminder that I'm invited to be born again and again in the
shape
of my God-given self, born in all the vulnerability of the
Christmas story. It's a
story that's hard to retrieve in a culture that commercializes
this holy day nearly
to death, and in churches more drawn to triumphalism and
ecclesiastical
bling than to the riskiness of the real thing. |
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welcome
page
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gallery
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people behind the words
our
current e-zine
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- Daily
Meditations, Year
Two - Year Three
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My
personal legacy? I’d like it to be one of good humor, good will
and generosity.
I’d like it to be said that we had a lot of laughs, we extended
a lot of kindness,
and we built an abundant storehouse of heart-and-soul resources
that anyone
can draw on. I can’t imagine a better legacy than that. |
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The
deeper our faith, the more doubt we must endure; the deeper our
hope,
the more prone we are to despair; the deeper our love, the
more pain its
loss will bring: these are a few of the paradoxes we
must hold as human
beings. If we refuse to hold them in the hopes
of living without doubt,
despair, and pain, we also find ourselves
living without faith, hope, and love. |
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Wholeness
does not mean perfection: it means embracing brokenness
as an
integral part of life. Knowing this gives me hope that human
wholeness--mine, yours, ours--need not be a utopian dream, if we
can use devastation as a seedbed for new life. |
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Experimentation
is how we learn, and a lot of experiments fail.
If you live your life experimentally, the failures will be
personal,
and some will be spectacular. And yet, as every scientist
knows,
we often learn more from experiments that fail
than from those that succeed.
On the Brink of Everything |
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Parker J. Palmer is an American author, educator, and activist who focuses on issues in
education, community, leadership, spirituality and social change.
He
has published ten books and numerous essays and poems, and is
founder and Senior Partner Emeritus of the Center for Courage and
Renewal. His work has been recognized with major foundation grants, several
national awards, and thirteen honorary doctorates.
Palmer was born in Chicago on
February 28, 1939, and grew up in Wilmette and Kenilworth, Il.
He
studied philosophy and sociology at Carleton
College, where he graduated in 1961 before going on to complete
a Doctor of Philosophy degree in sociology at the University
of California, Berkeley. After moving to the East Coast for a job as a community organizer and a
teaching position at Georgetown University, Palmer became involved with the Quakers Religious
Society of Friends at Pendle Hill, where he served as Dean of Studies and Writer in
Residence.
Palmer is the founder and Senior Partner Emeritus of the Center for Courage
Renewal, which oversees the Courage to Teach program for K–12
educators across the country and parallel programs for people in
other professions, including medicine, law, ministry and philanthropy.
He has published a dozen poems, more than one hundred essays and ten
books. Palmer's work has been recognized with thirteen honorary
doctorates, two Distinguished Achievement Awards from the National
Educational Press Association, an Award of Excellence from the
Associated Church Press, and grants from the Danforth Foundation,
the Lilly Endowment and the Fetzer Institute. Palmer has been
featured on the On Being podcast and regularly contributes to the
On
Being blog.
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