I’m a little late reading this, but maybe it is the right time for me.
About 40 years ago I borrowed one books and forgot to return. I don’t remember which book it was but it moved me to get on with my life which had hit a snag, so I went to seminary.
Now I read this meditation and it reminds me of a book by one of my professors. Black Saturday. It was about the time between the crucifixion and the resurrection. He was at end stage of cancer, could no longer teach and knew he would not see his son become a man. He was living the death and believed in the resurrection, but the in between time took so many shapes between dying and living, ascending, descending and blending.
Reading your meditation brought it back and makes the chaos which we are living, not easier, but more livable. Thank you.
Thank you, Palmer, for these brave insights! Reading through your essay and recalling my becoming an "elective mute" at the age of 7 -- when I understood that war was an activity in which adults intentionally killed each other -- I remembered the sense of feeling powerful by not speaking and being removed from the world. Really, there is no way to be removed from our existence. In regard to resurrection, I was reminded of the poem by Ellen Bass called "Relax." There she shows us how to engage (not disengage) when everything is falling apart. For me, that is the meaning of resurrection: showing up, no matter what. And sometimes, everything is falling apart! I am grateful for all you do. Palms together, I bow to you, and your profound sensibilities.
Everything I’ve ever read from you - speaks directly to my heart. I’ve waited to open this first newsletter to arrive in my inbox - knowing it would inspire and perhaps undo me in the grief path my path is winding these days. Thank you Parker Palmer. YES! Is a love wink from God to my soul - may i be granted the courage to keep saying YES! To this resurrection living. So happy you’re on Substack ❤️
as always parker, your courage and convictions are lighthouses in a time of darkening despair. i toast to your previously shared sentiments that hope has nothing to do with the odds being in our favor (though of course i certainly would welcome that!). hope must be rooted in something more incalculable and invincible, lit by pursuing peace and compassion for those most vulnerable in our weary world. as hillel famously said, “if i am not for myself, who will be for me? but if i am only for myself, who am i? if not now, when?" (ethics of the fathers, 1:14).
Thanks so much, Skott. Good to see you here! As I recall, that definition of hope went like this: "Hope is holding a creative tension between what is and what could and should be, each day doing something to narrow the distance between the two." I find it so helpful to think of hope as an action, not an attitude. Take care.
Rise and Resist! It is the call of the social/political realm that brings us out of our personal despair. I am called to attend each rally, seize every opportunity to contact elected officials, and to grow in my capacity to love daily.
Hmmm. I’ve only just begun to understand the resurrection story. The crucifixion is easier to understand. The suffering, the human mob insanity and cruelty, the inability to believe in selfless love over self interest… all of this is so much easier to understand… it’s familiar, even if abhorrent, and we know it’s led us to this place of fractious instability, divisiveness and sometimes immobilising terror. The resurrection, though? That’s harder to comprehend. Which is the point I guess? It is calling us to consider how we respond from a different place, from a source that is less understood, less familiar and less knowable. To recognise and act beyond what /how we know… from the other side of darkness… a source other than our selves. Perhaps from life itself? From love itself? From a place of deep connectedness to all that lives? I don’t know what this is but I’ve just had a wild image conjure itself in my mind of protests/ showing up with our animal friends, beaming images of great landscapes and precious forests over the buildings of autocrats and despots across the globe including that one in the White House … 🤷🏼♂️
For me the resurrection is so mysterious. It is a reminder that there is more than THIS. There is more than what we know. It is a call to re-member all we have forgotten / dismembered from our selves, our lives. It is a gift to inspire us to live and respond from wholeness and life/love itself. … Perhaps? ❤️
Thank you, Deborah. With you, I find myself walking around this mystery (and many others) turning to wonder: what is this all about, and what do my reactions to it say about me? Lots and lots of questions, and I love good questions—which explains the title of this Substack, stolen (of course) from Rainer Maria Rilke. Thanks for walking around the mystery with us/me.
Fascinating read! I’m Harrison, an ex fine dining industry line cook. My stack "The Secret Ingredient" adapts hit restaurant recipes (mostly NYC and L.A.) for easy home cooking. Dm me if interested in a recommendation swap — we’re growing fast!
Thank you! Resurrection…..Resurgence…..Revival……There will always be darkness and light. Thanks for reminding us that the ‘resurrection of the just’ is the positive side of the equation. We grow when we name the shadow side that lives there, too.
Thanks so much, Katy. A big yes to the idea that growth requires us to be as clear as we possibly can about the shadow that comes along with all things human, and that naming it helps us walk in the Light. Take care.
Thank you for your insights into how depression can co-opt our lives. It’s a work to come awake. I stood in front of a classroom with you suck, you suck running through my head. The story of Tom
Little who went to Afghanistan to help people with their eyes inspired me to keep going. He told our church earlier it’s important to be faithful, not necessarily successful. As I said earlier Let Your Life Speak also helped those years.
Thank you, Katie. With you and Tom Little, I am altogether convinced that faithfulness rather than effectiveness is the standard by which we should live, faithfulness to the better angels of our nature, and to whatever serves the common good. Thanks again.
Parker, I read all of your books many years ago. Time to read them again. I remember the man who rubbed your feet, which evoked for me the image of Christ washing the feet of his disciples. Hope you have a blessed Easter.
Thanks so much, Anne. My late friend's name was Bill Taber, and I will always be grateful to him. Thank you for remembering him, and a blessed Easter to you.
I remember the story of your friend Bill most vividly too Parker. And I drew from it when my niece was extremely depressed, self harming, suicidal during a very scary time a few years ago. Remembering your friend I made it a point to show up every day for the darkest of her times - for around a month or so. I’d pack food, get on my bike, ride and spend an hour with her every day at around lunchtime. Sometimes she was asleep after a night of self destructive excess. I’d just sit and stroke her back. Or sit with her with the food in between as an offering in case she could find a way to eat… it was the hardest thing I’ve done I think… but slowly somehow she found her way back to some form of sanity. I wasn’t the only one helping her of course and fortunately she chose life. She wrote to me later telling me that it was my steadfast love and willingness to show up daily with no expectations that helped her remember she was worthy of life of love. And Parker, it was inspired by your story. And your dear friend, Bill. So thank you from the bottom of my heart for sharing it.
I’m a little late reading this, but maybe it is the right time for me.
About 40 years ago I borrowed one books and forgot to return. I don’t remember which book it was but it moved me to get on with my life which had hit a snag, so I went to seminary.
Now I read this meditation and it reminds me of a book by one of my professors. Black Saturday. It was about the time between the crucifixion and the resurrection. He was at end stage of cancer, could no longer teach and knew he would not see his son become a man. He was living the death and believed in the resurrection, but the in between time took so many shapes between dying and living, ascending, descending and blending.
Reading your meditation brought it back and makes the chaos which we are living, not easier, but more livable. Thank you.
I first heard you share about depression on “on Being” podcast. Thank you for your courage and inspiration to all.
Thank you for your continued vulnerability as you write and share your story and your grace! I’m so deeply appreciative to call you my Friend!
Thank you, Palmer, for these brave insights! Reading through your essay and recalling my becoming an "elective mute" at the age of 7 -- when I understood that war was an activity in which adults intentionally killed each other -- I remembered the sense of feeling powerful by not speaking and being removed from the world. Really, there is no way to be removed from our existence. In regard to resurrection, I was reminded of the poem by Ellen Bass called "Relax." There she shows us how to engage (not disengage) when everything is falling apart. For me, that is the meaning of resurrection: showing up, no matter what. And sometimes, everything is falling apart! I am grateful for all you do. Palms together, I bow to you, and your profound sensibilities.
Everything I’ve ever read from you - speaks directly to my heart. I’ve waited to open this first newsletter to arrive in my inbox - knowing it would inspire and perhaps undo me in the grief path my path is winding these days. Thank you Parker Palmer. YES! Is a love wink from God to my soul - may i be granted the courage to keep saying YES! To this resurrection living. So happy you’re on Substack ❤️
Thank you, Adi. Your generous words mean a lot to me. We get along with a little (or a lot) of help from our friends!
as always parker, your courage and convictions are lighthouses in a time of darkening despair. i toast to your previously shared sentiments that hope has nothing to do with the odds being in our favor (though of course i certainly would welcome that!). hope must be rooted in something more incalculable and invincible, lit by pursuing peace and compassion for those most vulnerable in our weary world. as hillel famously said, “if i am not for myself, who will be for me? but if i am only for myself, who am i? if not now, when?" (ethics of the fathers, 1:14).
Thanks so much, Skott. Good to see you here! As I recall, that definition of hope went like this: "Hope is holding a creative tension between what is and what could and should be, each day doing something to narrow the distance between the two." I find it so helpful to think of hope as an action, not an attitude. Take care.
Rise and Resist! It is the call of the social/political realm that brings us out of our personal despair. I am called to attend each rally, seize every opportunity to contact elected officials, and to grow in my capacity to love daily.
Thanks, Judith, and a big YES to the way action in service of the common good can bring us out of personal despair! Seize the day!
Hmmm. I’ve only just begun to understand the resurrection story. The crucifixion is easier to understand. The suffering, the human mob insanity and cruelty, the inability to believe in selfless love over self interest… all of this is so much easier to understand… it’s familiar, even if abhorrent, and we know it’s led us to this place of fractious instability, divisiveness and sometimes immobilising terror. The resurrection, though? That’s harder to comprehend. Which is the point I guess? It is calling us to consider how we respond from a different place, from a source that is less understood, less familiar and less knowable. To recognise and act beyond what /how we know… from the other side of darkness… a source other than our selves. Perhaps from life itself? From love itself? From a place of deep connectedness to all that lives? I don’t know what this is but I’ve just had a wild image conjure itself in my mind of protests/ showing up with our animal friends, beaming images of great landscapes and precious forests over the buildings of autocrats and despots across the globe including that one in the White House … 🤷🏼♂️
For me the resurrection is so mysterious. It is a reminder that there is more than THIS. There is more than what we know. It is a call to re-member all we have forgotten / dismembered from our selves, our lives. It is a gift to inspire us to live and respond from wholeness and life/love itself. … Perhaps? ❤️
Thank you, Deborah. With you, I find myself walking around this mystery (and many others) turning to wonder: what is this all about, and what do my reactions to it say about me? Lots and lots of questions, and I love good questions—which explains the title of this Substack, stolen (of course) from Rainer Maria Rilke. Thanks for walking around the mystery with us/me.
Fascinating read! I’m Harrison, an ex fine dining industry line cook. My stack "The Secret Ingredient" adapts hit restaurant recipes (mostly NYC and L.A.) for easy home cooking. Dm me if interested in a recommendation swap — we’re growing fast!
check us out:
https://thesecretingredient.substack.com
Just what I needed on Holy Saturday!
Thank you, Brandi.
Thank you! Resurrection…..Resurgence…..Revival……There will always be darkness and light. Thanks for reminding us that the ‘resurrection of the just’ is the positive side of the equation. We grow when we name the shadow side that lives there, too.
Thanks so much, Katy. A big yes to the idea that growth requires us to be as clear as we possibly can about the shadow that comes along with all things human, and that naming it helps us walk in the Light. Take care.
Thank you for your insights into how depression can co-opt our lives. It’s a work to come awake. I stood in front of a classroom with you suck, you suck running through my head. The story of Tom
Little who went to Afghanistan to help people with their eyes inspired me to keep going. He told our church earlier it’s important to be faithful, not necessarily successful. As I said earlier Let Your Life Speak also helped those years.
Thank you, Katie. With you and Tom Little, I am altogether convinced that faithfulness rather than effectiveness is the standard by which we should live, faithfulness to the better angels of our nature, and to whatever serves the common good. Thanks again.
Yes so very true! So glad you’re on here.
Thank you Parker for this powerful post. I loved “Rise and Resist Day” May we all choose resurrection each day. Amen.
Thanks so much, dear friend. I know you live by these principles, and that fact has always encouraged me. Deep bow...
Light the Way Brother!
Thank you, Thomas. I know you are lighting the way, too! Take care.
Always inspiring. Thank you for your post.
Thank you, Martha, for your kind words. Take good care.
Parker, I read all of your books many years ago. Time to read them again. I remember the man who rubbed your feet, which evoked for me the image of Christ washing the feet of his disciples. Hope you have a blessed Easter.
Thanks so much, Anne. My late friend's name was Bill Taber, and I will always be grateful to him. Thank you for remembering him, and a blessed Easter to you.
I remember the story of your friend Bill most vividly too Parker. And I drew from it when my niece was extremely depressed, self harming, suicidal during a very scary time a few years ago. Remembering your friend I made it a point to show up every day for the darkest of her times - for around a month or so. I’d pack food, get on my bike, ride and spend an hour with her every day at around lunchtime. Sometimes she was asleep after a night of self destructive excess. I’d just sit and stroke her back. Or sit with her with the food in between as an offering in case she could find a way to eat… it was the hardest thing I’ve done I think… but slowly somehow she found her way back to some form of sanity. I wasn’t the only one helping her of course and fortunately she chose life. She wrote to me later telling me that it was my steadfast love and willingness to show up daily with no expectations that helped her remember she was worthy of life of love. And Parker, it was inspired by your story. And your dear friend, Bill. So thank you from the bottom of my heart for sharing it.
And to you, also.