Let Your Life Speak...

Have you ever read a book and wanted to underline everything? I am currently reading one of those books: Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation by Parker Palmer. It was recommended to me by a friend and fellow spiritual director when we met for peer supervision last week. I started reading it for my work with a directee but only a page in I realized that this is a book for me. Here are a few quotes that I pulled out to give you a taste:

"Ask me whether what I have done is my life." (p. 1)

"...the life I am living is not the same as the life that wants to live in me." (p. 2)

"Before you tell your life what you intend to do with it, 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." (p. 3)

"What a long time it can take to become the person one has always been! How often in the process we mask ourselves in faces that are not our own. How much dissolving and shaking of ego we must endure before we discover our deep identity - the true self within every human being that is the seed of authentic vocation." (p. 9)

In speaking about his infant granddaughter Palmer says, "She did not show up as raw material to be shaped into whatever image the world might want her to take. She arrived with her own gifted form, with the shape of her own sacred soul. Biblical faith calls it the image of God in which we are all created. Thomas Merton calls it true self. Quakers call it the inner light, or 'that of God' in every person. The humanist tradition calls it identity and integrity. No matter what you call it, it is a pearl of great price." (p. 11)

"Our deepest calling is to grow into our own authentic self-hood, whether or not it conforms to some image of who we ought to be." (p. 16)

"Vocation at its deepest level is, 'This is something I can't not do, for reasons I'm unable to explain to anyone else and don't fully understand myself but that are nonetheless compelling.'" (p. 25)

The words on these pages are striking a chord deep within me. He is putting into words what I have sometimes fought but always known to be true. And so fitting that I am reading this book just days before I embark on my pilgrimage to Dingman's Ferry, PA to begin Gestalt Pastoral Care training.

The problems with living close to nature...

As you probably know, I love living close to nature. It doesn't come without it's draw backs though. This summer we've had an abundance of skunks on campus, especially skunks that like to make daytime appearances which made working on the yard this summer kind of interesting at times.

Anyway, a few nights ago Carrie and I were both woken up by the unmistakably strong aroma of skunk wafting through our open windows. It was nasty, to say the least.

The next morning I got up and went to work. I came home to grab something mid-morning and noticed that my computer was on and that there was a picture of a skunk on my screen. I figured Carrie must have been researching the habits of our lovely neighbours. That is, until I looked at our bulletin board and found this:



Oh, it made me laugh out loud!

Catharsis anyone?

The chaos has begun...

Well, the final year has begun! I just survived my first full week of class and already turned in a 1500-word paper yesterday. This semester is going to be hectic, to say the least, but I'm feeling hopeful. I've decided that in order to keep myself focused this year I'm going to do most of my studying at the library so I've got myself a study carrel and set up my "office."

For a tour of where I'll be spending my days, click HERE and to find out why our library is "One of a Kind" click HERE. Enough promo for now.

I'm taking 5 classes this semester: Psalms, Luke-Acts: Mission Perspectives, Canon and Community, History of Christian Spirituality, and Growth in Ministry. I'm actually auditing Luke-Acts this semester and will be completing it for credit as an independent study next semester, so technically I'm only taking 10 credit hours.

I've also started my work as the Church and Ministry department assistant, doing some research for professors and learning to post scanned articles to the class websites. I get to go to my first CHM meeting on Monday.

This morning I needed some centering time, so I mowed for 3 hours. I had a spiritual direction session this afternoon and I could think of no better way to prepare to offer spiritual direction than on my Steiner.

So that's the brief update from this week. Now I'm going to watch the America's Got Talent finale and result show with my friend Andrea. I've managed to make it 3 whole days without accidentally finding out who won. Later...

First day of School...

First day of my first year of school

and 22 years later...


the first day of what will quite possibly be my last year of school.

An evening at the beach...

Carrie and I spent Sunday evening at Warren Dunes State Park on Lake Michigan.