[.ca] Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation (ISBN 0787947350)

From Amazon.com:
The old Quaker adage, "Let your life speak," spoke to author Parker J. Palmer when he was in his early 30s. It summoned him to a higher purpose, so he decided that henceforth he would live a nobler life. "I lined up the most elevated ideals I could find and set out to achieve them," he writes. "The results were rarely admirable, often laughable, and sometimes grotesque.... I had simply found a 'noble' way of living a life that was not my own, a life spent imitating heroes instead of listening to my heart." Thirty years later, Palmer now understands that learning to let his life speak means "living the life that wants to live in me." It involves creating the kind of quiet, trusting conditions that allow a soul to speak its truth. It also means tuning out the noisy preconceived ideas about what a vocation should and shouldn't be so that we can better hear the call of our wild souls. There are no how-to formulas in this extremely unpretentious and well-written book, just fireside wisdom from an elder who is willing to share his mistakes and stories as he learned to live a life worth speaking about. --Gail Hudson

Interesting if Not Useful:
I found this book to be an interesting read into one man's journey toward self-discovery. He has some good insights into how one might take a different view of the world and find one's true vocation. From my perspective, it was a bit too self-absorbed and self-engrandizing. I would recommend this book to anyone that is depressed about his or her life and needs to find a potential source of comfort. If you have a fairly good sense of self, this book may not be of great benefit.

fluffy. very, very fluffy.:
my god, what an obnoxious, over-wrought, self-important heap of nonsense. this man thinks far too highly of his life story, which is low on anything truely trying and high on sentimentality. i quote: "i love the fact that the word humus, the dacayed vegatable matter that feeds the roots of plants, comes from the same root that gives rise to the word humility. it is a blessed etymology. it helps me understand that the humiliating events of life, the events that leave 'mud on my face' or that 'makes my name mud' may create the fertile soil in which something new can grow." well, good for you, pal. the oft-used metaphores and life stories that are not incoherent are utterly laughable in a droll, sugary way that does not lend itself to serious reading. some people may be capable of enjoying such writing and finding it truly inspiring. i am not one of those folks, and do not reccomend this book. to anyone.

Validating....:
This book is an inspiration for those feeling "the pull"--the struggle between "what society tells me I should be doing" and "what I feel I need/was born to do". Both my husband and I could not put it down. Palmer validated our feelings of "I don't think the rat race is what life is really about..." whereby giving us the confidence to pursue major life and career changes. Read a paragraph, stop and think...and then read on....

Phenomenal:
This book should be required reading for all high school seniors. Barring that, it should be required reading for every college freshman. I wish I had read it 30 years ago. Parker J.Palmer has brilliantly made sense of the chaos churning around in my head about my career path. His insight and wisdom are uncanny.

Vocation comes from within:
This is a book which will be most meaningful to those who are asking the same kinds of questions related to vocation and purpose which Palmer explores. If one is not at that point (ie. not interested in self-exploration, personal vocation, or integrity between actions and heart), then it will probably seem "self-engrandizing", as one reviewer so eloquently put it. This book's main theme is finding vocation by listening to one's inner self, not to outer voices. Palmer shows how he spent so much of his life hearing the latter (doing what was expected of him, pursuing a career that did not fit his personality and passion) and therefore was not moving in the right direction; listening to the inner voice (which is so much a part of his Quaker religion) got him on the right track. He talks about how our failures, as much as our successes, can help us understand who we are and what we are meant to do and be. (By the way I was surprised to read the review by grace (who "likes indiana alot", even its streets--wow!) who says Palmer has not gone through anything "truely" bad. Perhaps two bouts of clinical depression don't meet her qualifications!) This is a quiet, reflective book that invites the reader to go on an inner journey. If you are looking for excitement and page-turning adventure, you should definitely not buy this.