So much to ponder and ruminate with in your words here. Thank you for these beautiful insights and observations that give me pause in the midst of the sea of chaos and uncertainty we live in these days… you are truly a life raft. Thank you!
Having just spent the holiday weekend with my 93 y/o father, your words resonate. As I be with him it deepens me. Thank you for your beautiful writing Parker!
Thank you. This is absolutely beautiful use of language. I love the interplay between you, the other author, the little girl, nature and of course all over a delightful cup of coffee. For me, your words speak to how everyone responds to the uncertainty in life- every age, every season of life, every landscape. Thank you for the clarity of your insights!
Really enjoyed this. Reminded me of Amy Tan’s words - before there were words there was wonder. I find that immersing myself in the wonder of God’s world is a great therapy against depression and despair in our chaotic world
When I read about your daemon that drove you to write, I'm grateful for your compulsion, even if it was to the exclusion of the outer world, which I hold in question, as your writing is laced with examples of the outer world: organizational life, other's writings, and nature as reference points and examples. It's what makes your writing sing, that it's grounded.
This is less a comment and more of an appreciation thats been 20+ years brewing, collecting countless thank you's with it and prompted by reading your reflection on another reader's thank you note.
Your book, "Let Your Life Speak", introduced me to my leadership shadow of 'functional atheism' offering me perspective on my inflated sense of responsibility and arrogance, setting me on a path to discover my own faith and paying attention to the metaphors embedded in my speaking and living. So yes, reading it changed my life. Thank you for taking the time to craft it.
"Let Your Life Speak" is a gift and I've given it countless times to friends and colleagues; so I now pass along all the thank you's that have been shared with me of how this book has helped shift their lives, too. Many, like me have re-read it at different phases of our lives, finding the pearls of wisdom waiting within.
Thank you for giving me permission to pay attention to this correspondence between my inner and outer life, this ongoing curiosity has shaped the contours of my life in most blessed ways.
For years, I had a weekly lunch date with a close friend, named Bill. He was a retired psychology professor who had hired and mentored me. We are both philosophical heretics mired in an unsympathetic department. So, our weekly lunches helped keep both me sane and mostly out of trouble. Anyway, Bill often spoke about some author he loved, named Parker Palmer. I am glad I stumbled across this site, and I see why Bill raved about you. Great piece, and I look forward to reading more!
This made me cry. Your writing invokes a sense of grace. I don’t know how to explain it, except to say your words bypass my intellect and speak directly to my soul. Thank you. ❤️
I so enjoy your perspective and laugh a bit thinking of my desire to die of ecstacy watching a flock of green parrots fly by. Doctors might consider prescribing elders to chase down every second of what brings them joy even if it is the thing they die of. Imagine dying of joy.
"I arrived here with no bad memories of wherever I’d come from, so I have no good reason to fear the place to which I’ll return." As someone who has pondered (and encountered) death in more ways than I ever wanted, this new insight made my jaw drop. Never thought about it in quite this way, and it's a source of deep comfort. Thank you for yet another window into the limitless mystery of what comes next.
Thank you for “taking many of us “ into this next chapter of our lives! I am 73 and although still “physically well” I do think a lot about the realities of aging. I SO appreciate hearing your thoughts and will refer to them often in the “ next days” ahead!!!! Thank you and God Bless you !
"We come from mystery, and we return to mystery." As I move closer to the brink of everything and peer into the abyss, I think I'm beginning to hear something off in the distance - coming up from the middle of the middle of the swirl - that was there in the beginning, is now and will be forever. It is this: laughter. I think it was mystic Meister Eckhart who said, "When the Father laughs at the Son and the Son laughs back at the Father, that laughter gives pleasure, that pleasure gives joy, that joy gives love, and that love is the Holy Spirit." Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." Whew! That's enough for now.
Hello Parker J. Palmer. I appreciate your bolded subheadings. A kind toehold for those of us who are scrolling on our phones before we get up. :) In the Light, @Mmerikani
So much to ponder and ruminate with in your words here. Thank you for these beautiful insights and observations that give me pause in the midst of the sea of chaos and uncertainty we live in these days… you are truly a life raft. Thank you!
Having just spent the holiday weekend with my 93 y/o father, your words resonate. As I be with him it deepens me. Thank you for your beautiful writing Parker!
Thank you. This is absolutely beautiful use of language. I love the interplay between you, the other author, the little girl, nature and of course all over a delightful cup of coffee. For me, your words speak to how everyone responds to the uncertainty in life- every age, every season of life, every landscape. Thank you for the clarity of your insights!
Really enjoyed this. Reminded me of Amy Tan’s words - before there were words there was wonder. I find that immersing myself in the wonder of God’s world is a great therapy against depression and despair in our chaotic world
When I read about your daemon that drove you to write, I'm grateful for your compulsion, even if it was to the exclusion of the outer world, which I hold in question, as your writing is laced with examples of the outer world: organizational life, other's writings, and nature as reference points and examples. It's what makes your writing sing, that it's grounded.
This is less a comment and more of an appreciation thats been 20+ years brewing, collecting countless thank you's with it and prompted by reading your reflection on another reader's thank you note.
Your book, "Let Your Life Speak", introduced me to my leadership shadow of 'functional atheism' offering me perspective on my inflated sense of responsibility and arrogance, setting me on a path to discover my own faith and paying attention to the metaphors embedded in my speaking and living. So yes, reading it changed my life. Thank you for taking the time to craft it.
"Let Your Life Speak" is a gift and I've given it countless times to friends and colleagues; so I now pass along all the thank you's that have been shared with me of how this book has helped shift their lives, too. Many, like me have re-read it at different phases of our lives, finding the pearls of wisdom waiting within.
Thank you for giving me permission to pay attention to this correspondence between my inner and outer life, this ongoing curiosity has shaped the contours of my life in most blessed ways.
Thank you Parker for all you do, have done and will continue to do. A fellow educator,
Rev Constance McClain
movingrace1@gmail.com
Oh how comforting…thank you.🙏💞 And I love Carrie Newcomer’s songs.
For years, I had a weekly lunch date with a close friend, named Bill. He was a retired psychology professor who had hired and mentored me. We are both philosophical heretics mired in an unsympathetic department. So, our weekly lunches helped keep both me sane and mostly out of trouble. Anyway, Bill often spoke about some author he loved, named Parker Palmer. I am glad I stumbled across this site, and I see why Bill raved about you. Great piece, and I look forward to reading more!
Thank you for these hope-full words! DWholeness does not mean perfection—it means embracing brokenness as an integral part of life. 🔥
This made me cry. Your writing invokes a sense of grace. I don’t know how to explain it, except to say your words bypass my intellect and speak directly to my soul. Thank you. ❤️
I so enjoy your perspective and laugh a bit thinking of my desire to die of ecstacy watching a flock of green parrots fly by. Doctors might consider prescribing elders to chase down every second of what brings them joy even if it is the thing they die of. Imagine dying of joy.
my new reminder is to see with rose colored windows
"I arrived here with no bad memories of wherever I’d come from, so I have no good reason to fear the place to which I’ll return." As someone who has pondered (and encountered) death in more ways than I ever wanted, this new insight made my jaw drop. Never thought about it in quite this way, and it's a source of deep comfort. Thank you for yet another window into the limitless mystery of what comes next.
Thank you for “taking many of us “ into this next chapter of our lives! I am 73 and although still “physically well” I do think a lot about the realities of aging. I SO appreciate hearing your thoughts and will refer to them often in the “ next days” ahead!!!! Thank you and God Bless you !
"We come from mystery, and we return to mystery." As I move closer to the brink of everything and peer into the abyss, I think I'm beginning to hear something off in the distance - coming up from the middle of the middle of the swirl - that was there in the beginning, is now and will be forever. It is this: laughter. I think it was mystic Meister Eckhart who said, "When the Father laughs at the Son and the Son laughs back at the Father, that laughter gives pleasure, that pleasure gives joy, that joy gives love, and that love is the Holy Spirit." Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." Whew! That's enough for now.
Hello Parker J. Palmer. I appreciate your bolded subheadings. A kind toehold for those of us who are scrolling on our phones before we get up. :) In the Light, @Mmerikani