2022-01-27
1 小时 1 分钟It is profoundly therapeutic to be able to stand up in your world, whatever that world may be, private, public, whatever, and say, I am all of the above.
This is who I am.
I am my darkness and I am my light.
And that became part of my ongoing healing.
So what might happen if you let go of what you thought your life would or should be, and instead created the space to let it show you what it truly yearned to be?
And then followed that thread?
Well, that's been the experience of my guest today.
Parker Palmer, graduating Berkeley with a PhD in 69.
He thought he'd head into the world of academia, but instead found himself heading to DC to become an activist on the ground and community organizer for five years.
But something else began to call him, and he took what he thought would be a short sojourn, a couple of months to a Quaker learning community that turned into eleven years.
And over time, a new sense of calling emerged as a writer, a speaker, an activist, an educator who focuses on issues of education, community leadership, spirituality, and social change.
And Parker is the founder and senior partner emeritus of the center for Courage and Renewal, which offers long term retreat programs for people in the serving professions, including teachers, physicians, nonprofit leaders, and clergy.
And along the way, he's written a series of bestselling books, many that have really deeply affected me, including a hidden wholeness, let your life speak, the company of strangers and on the brink of everything.
Grace, gravity and getting old, which is an interesting context because I spoke with Parker, who's now in his eighties, and we were in a sort of deeply reflective place together.
In this deeply moving conversation, Parker shares his journey and many of the stops along the way, many of the insights that have emerged, as well as how three seasons of profound depression later in life have shaped his experience of life and lends on people and compassion and belonging and beyond.
So excited to share this conversation with you.
I'm Jonathan Fields and this is Good Life project.
I know part of your the origin story has you coming out of Berkeley with a PhD in 69, thinking that you were about to step into one particular path, but emerging from school at a time where the world was oddly experiencing a lot of similar things to today, and everything changed for you, sort of in the blink of an eye.
I'd love to know more about that moment.
Yeah, it did.