Day 2 Listening to Life

Summer 2015 Book Discussion

Parker Palmer—Let Your Life Speak

In chapter 1 Parker Palmer talks about letting your life speak to you. Often our attitudes, life experiences, family, friends, body language, journaling…show us where our lives are meant to be but we don’t always take the time to listen or notice these life nudges. I could easily relate to several examples that Palmer made regarding not actively listening to our lives.

I can recall that in college I too would lie awake at night and question if I was making the right choices about my career path and relationships. I was a nursing student and working as a medical tech. I enjoyed my patients and coworkers, but I was mentally exhausted and often made myself so sick from worrying that I was too tired to work the early morning shift…was this normal? I experienced such energy in praying, serving as Chaplain of my sorority or volunteering in the community with my soccer team, and the mission trip that I had just returned from brought sheer joy to my life. I couldn’t help but think of the people I had met, or the welcoming response that I received when I met them at mass, prayed with them or simply made them feel human by acknowledging them.  

The section of the chapter that summed up how to best listen to life occurs on page 3.  “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 truth you embody, what values you represent.”

When I finally stopped wresting with what I wanted to do and let God and my life lead the way I noticed how free I finally felt. When I changed my major as a Junior I wasn’t worried about having to take two extra classes to graduate on time, I no longer missed work because I lay awake at night with my mind running. My migraine headaches became more sparse...it was like my body was saying “Thank you” for finally seeing it our way. Call me crazy but I even continued on to a Master’s Program without feeling the extra burden of juggling a job with Master level classes. I was free, happy, and eager to see where my life would take me.  

Questions to reflect on…

1. Are living a life that is not your own?
2. Have you stopped to listen for guidance from within? What was that experience like?
3. "Vocation does not come from willfulness. It comes from listening." (page 4) Are you listening to your vocation? Who you are? What you are meant to be?