Welcome to Litsy!

In the visible world of nature, a great truth is concealed in plain sight: diminish meant and beauty, darkness and light, death and life are not opposites. They are held together in the paradox of “hidden wholeness”.

I first read this 15 years ago, and found it deeply meaningful during a time when I was both mentoring others in discerning their calling, and discerning a new direction in my own life. Reading it again now brought up so many memories, and the parallels & contrasts between my life then and now are striking. Because of that, it was a difficult read in some ways, but very reassuring in others. ⤵️

When I give something I do not possess, I give a false and dangerous gift, the gift that looks like love but is, in reality, loveless- a gift given more from my need to prove myself then from the others need to be cared for. That kind of giving is not only loveless but faithless, based on the arrogant mistaken notion that God has no way of channeling love to the other except through me.

One sign that I am violating my own nature in the name of nobility is burnout. Though usually regarded as the result of trying to give too much, burnout in my experience results from trying to give what I do not possess- the ultimate in giving too little! Burnout is a state of emptiness, to be sure, but it does not result from giving all that I have: it merely reveals the nothingness from which I was trying to give in the first place.

They remind me of moments when it‘s clear- if I have eyes to see -that the life I am living is not the same as the life that wants to live in me. In those moments I sometimes catch a glimpse of my true life, a life hidden like the river beneath the ice. And in the spirit of the poet, I wonder: what am I meant to do? Who am I meant to be?

Short read but good information

What happens when I am currently in four courses at once?
Currently Reading: too many at one time! 😝 I have to add some pleasure reads with my brain reads.

A brief but deep book. I especially appreciated Palmer's description of five shadows that leaders need to be wary of. And this: "We learn that we need not carry the whole load but can share it with others, liberating us and empowering them. We learn that sometimes we are free to lay the load down altogether. The great community asks us to do only what we are able and trust the rest to other hands."

On my way to Fall 2017 Meacham Writers' Workshop in Chattanooga, TN. Taking Parker J. Palmer with me. 😉

This book is an excellent companion for those of us willing to be still and to listen to what our life is telling us about our vocation. Crucially, it focuses on paying attention to our limitations as much as to our gifts: no more bullying ourselves into being the kind of person we think we *ought* to be at the expense of being who we truly are!
It is a short book but one which I have been/will be pondering for some time.
#vocation #reread

I'm thinking a lot about #vocation lately; how difficult it is, amongst a sense of general urgency, to let it arrive in its own good time.

Good definition.

Silence. This sounds like a great read.

For #day15 of the #augustphotochallenge, I found more #peachcoloredbooks than I thought I would! Interestingly, a much higher percentage was to be found on my shelf of children's books than on any other shelf.