Weekly Soul - Week 25 - Vocation
Today's meditation from Weekly Soul: Fifty-two Meditations on Meaningful, Joyful, and Peaceful Living by Dr. Frederic Craigie.
-25-
Vocation does not
mean a goal that I pursue. It means a calling that I hear. Before I can tell my
life what I want to do with it, I must listen to my life telling me who I am. I
must listen for the truths and values at the heart of my own identity, not the
standards by which I must live… but the standards by which I cannot help but
live if I am living my own life.
Parker Palmer
How do you spend your time? How do you
choose how you spend your time? What undergirds your choices in how you spend
your time?
Parker Palmer presents two scenarios. The
first is when we embrace values and standards that are not ours. It’s tempting,
is it not, to be drawn along by the magnetic pull of cultural values? More
responsibility is better than less. Higher remuneration is better than lower. Greater
public prominence and recognition are better than doing things outside of the
limelight.
Moreover, we can certainly pursue noble
paths that are not our own. I know lawyers who don’t like being lawyers and
physicians who don’t like being physicians.
The second scenario is when we hear a
calling. Perhaps it arises from within ourselves, from a deep recognition of
who we really are. Palmer calls this “the heart of my own identity.” Perhaps it
arises from the movement of a greater Presence or Spirit. Either way, an
awareness of calling helps to frame and direct the ways in which we uniquely
act in the world. This is vocation.
Vocation is a spiritual calling. Our
modern word dates from the 13th century, from the Old French vocacion,
a “call,” a “consecration.”
The nature of this calling precedes the idea of vocation as a profession, but
the idea of sacred calling and occupation or profession had merged together in
word use by the mid-1500s.
Palmer himself, having earned a Ph.D. at
Berkeley in the 1960s, wrestled for a number of years with his relationship
with the academic world. He had advisors who told him that he would do well as
a university professor and was destined to be a university president, but he
was repelled by what he saw as the duplicity in values of higher education. He
took a job mentoring students in community organizing but realized that he
lacked enough of a personal experience of community for this to succeed. He
left the academic world and spent ten years at Pendle Hill, a Quaker retreat
center outside of Philadelphia. There, he came to two important realizations.
First, Palmer came to understand that his
revulsion of the academic world was really less about the scarred values in
academia and more about his own fears of failure to live up to the standards
that the academic life would command. Being able to face the darkness in
oneself, he says, is an important part of the journey.
Second, he recognized that the constant,
life-giving thread of the work that really mattered to him was teaching. The
calling—his vocation—was to teach, and this could be engaged best, for him, as
an independent teacher and writer, apart from formal institutions.
When you listen to your life, what do you hear? What has your life been telling you
about what you do well? What has your life been telling you about what you love
to do? Vocation—a consecrated life—is formed in the coming-together of your
emerging, growing answers to these two questions.
Reflection
- Life gives us messages in
nudges and flashes. The nudges part… how, over time, have you experienced
some gentle nudge or urging that invites you to move away from or toward
some particular ways that you might spend your time? How have you come to
an awareness that you really have inherent talents and passions for some
things, more than others?
- The flashes part… when may
there have been a time when you came to a more sudden recognition or
unveiling of who you are and how you are called to act in the world?
- When you think of “calling” or
“vocation,” what does this mean to you right now? Think of a time in the
last six weeks when this has been most clearly embodied in your life. How
would you put this experience into words?
- In the coming week, notice two
or three times when you are acting most clearly in concert with your
understanding of vocation.
Author
Parker
Palmer (b. 1939)
is an American writer, educator and activist. His years at Pendle Hill and
involvement with the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) have been
particularly formative for him, affirming his passion for teaching and for
being a teacher of educators. Palmer speaks often about a seamless relationship
between the inner life and the outer life—how we are both influencing the world
from an understanding of who we are and are appropriating wisdom and insight
from our life experiences. He is the founder and Senior Partner Emeritus of the
Center for Courage and Renewal, which facilitates resources and retreats to
create safe spaces of trust and exploration for individuals, teams and
communities. The quotation is from Palmer’s book, Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice
of Vocation (Jossey-Bass,
2000).
Book Description:
Keywords:
meditation; reflection; inspiration; miracles; aliveness; purpose; laughter; joy; presence; mindfulness; activism; acceptance; gratitude; forgiveness; creativity; civility; hope; affirmation; wholeness; well-being; mental health; personal growth; transformation; inner peace; personal reflection; joy; joyful living; inspirational quotes; inspirational commentary
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