Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation

by Parker J. Palmer

Book Overview

PLEASE NOTE: Some recent copies of Let Your Life Speak included printing errors. These issues have been corrected, but if you purchased a defective copy between September and December 2019, please send proof of purchase to josseybasseducation@wiley.com to receive a replacement copy.

Dear Friends: I'm sorry that after 20 years of happy traveling, Let Your Life Speak hit a big pothole involving printing...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0787947350
• ISBN13: 9780787947354
• Release Date: September 1999
• Publisher: Jossey-Bass
• Length: 128 Pages
• Weight: 0.41 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.0" x 7.2"

Customer Reviews

Wonderful read for those seeking a little direction in life

This is a wonderful, easy to read book that offers useful guidance and perspective on life and how one can approach life. Palmer offers many candid examples from his own life and doesn't impose his views upon the reader--he simply offers advice for your consideration. This is an excellent read for those who feel lost, overwhelmed by life, disheartened by the state of the world, or even those who wish to be adequate leaders. I finished the book feeling very refreshed with new perspectives and I feel this is a book I will keep and revisit periodically throughout my life to find new meanings in his words.

Stopping and listening...

One thing that our world does not encourage very well is stopping and listening -- stopping and listening to each other, stopping and listening to life around us, or stopping and listening even to ourselves. This is a skill that, given our cultural conditioning, must be cultivated. That is one of the things that this book by Parker Palmer, `Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation', strives to do -- to help the reader, the seeker, to be more attentive to life. Palmer is a well-known author in the area of vocational care and consideration. I first encountered Palmer's writing in another book, The Courage to Teach, as various of us explored the meanings of our vocations as educators in the fields of theology and ministry. Palmer states at the outset in his Gratitudes (a wonderful substitution from the typical words Preface or Introduction) that these chapters have in various guises appeared before. However, they have been re-written to fit together as a complete and unified whole for the purpose of exploring vocation. Chapter 1: Listening to Life, starts as an exploration through poetry and Palmer's own experience in vocation. What is one called to do? What is the source of vocation? Palmer states: `Vocation does not come from willfulness. It comes from listening. I must listen to my life and try to understand what it is truly about -- quite apart from what I would like it to be about -- or my life will never represent anything real in the world, no matter how earnest my intentions.' The very word vocation implies both voice and calling. Crucial to this understanding is that one must be present and attentive to hear that voice, that call. Chapter 2: Now I Become Myself, continues, through the words of May Sarton, Palmer's self-exploration and self-discovery of the vocation not as an achievement but rather as a gift. One must be ready to receive the gift. Many people, and Palmer is no exception, go through a period of darkness, despair, and depression before reaching a clear understanding of the vocation to which they are called. It requires courage. It requires diligence. It requires (and again Palmer uses the words of Sarton) the understanding that this will take 'time, many years and places'. It requires patience. Chapter 3: When Way Closes explores one of the frequent problems along the vocational trail -- what happens when something stops or closes? Is it as simple as thinking a window opens when a door closes? Sometimes it is not so simply identifiable. Our vocation sometimes propels into action or inaction because what we are doing rather than what we should be doing. Palmer says we must learn our limits, and sometimes we subconsciously force ourselves into action by closing off the past. Palmer used the example of having lost a job. Palmer was able to discern, through reflection, that he was not fired from that job because he was bad at the job, but rather because it had little to do with his true vocation, and his heart wo

Quietly Paradoxical

Parker Palmer creates a peacful arena for understanding our own lives by sharing what he has experienced and learned from his own. I found this book to be a "quick read" on the one hand and yet I keep going back and rereading parts of it ... and then rereading the whole section.I came away from reading this book - the first time - with a peace about my life and how I have lived it. I better understand the lessons I have been taught and more faith about the path I am following. A whole lot for a little book to accomplish.

some things you just can't avoid

Life is full of twists and turns that lead you all over the map. However, along that journey there are those things inside of you that are screaming to be released, and when they finally are they bring complete fulfillment to your mind, body and soul. Those things are gifts that God gave you when he planned out your life. Palmer invites readers to find those God given gifts and act on them. He invites readers through Let Your Life Speak to find who you are, and not who the world, teachers, culture, parents, media, and friends have forced you to become. I highly recommend this book for those who know they aren't doing what their soul tells them to do. Get ready for a ride though because after reading this short, but moving book, you will have to make some changes in your life. Some big, some small, but things will not remain the same.

For all those who live with a nagging doubt...

For me, this book is less about vocation than it is about loving yourself. In my life (and to the world, a wonderful one) was empty and void. Having come from a verbally abusive childhood, I struggled all my life to "become". But it was never me. Recently, I hit bottom, as Parker did. And I discovered what he writes so eloquently about...you must love yourself first before you can see and cherish and give your gifts to others. For me, it was the end of a 19 year marriage. A change in what I would tolerate at work. And the people around me, most blessedly my children, notice a huge difference. I am me now, not driven by fears or other's boxes. I was pretty charismatic before, but you should see my light shine now. This book helps explain the journey I thought was just me. Parker Palmer has captured probably the most important concept in life...and one that you really should read. This is one of those books that you'll share with others, but you'll want them to get their own copy!

Uplifting, thought-provoking--and not a "how-to" book!

Having read this book during my morning and evening train commutes, I found it to be incredibly inspiring and challenging at the same time. At first I was hesitant to read this book because I have become tired of all the "how-to" books on finding one's vocation and calling in life. I have found that someone else's 5-step plan to finding the right job hasn't always worked for me.However, I like this book because it's very personal, yet without being preachy. Through reading Parker Palmer's own journey toward self-fulfillment, I have become inspired to examine my own path toward vocation. I think that finding one's calling in life is a very personal process, and following someone else's step-by-step plan can actually cause more harm than good.In fact, I found myself reading as if I were conversing with a personal mentor. As a result I've become challenged to examine my own life in a way that a "how-to" book could never have provoked me to do. I plan to give this book as a holiday gift to a close friend who is facing a "midlife crisis." I think it will help him.