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Liked It “Amazing insight. Well-written and true, all the way.” see full review » see other reviews » |
Didn’t Like It “It was an alright read. I think I might have enjoyed it a bit more if it hadn't been a course required reading with a book about me tied to it. There are a handful of interesting ideas that made me think differently and ponder about, but for me he was a bit too egocentric.” see full review » see other reviews » |
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“Amazing insight. Well-written and true, all the way.”
claygirl wrote this review Thursday, November 12 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No“It was an alright read. I think I might have enjoyed it a bit more if it hadn't been a course required reading with a book about me tied to it. There are a handful of interesting ideas that made me think differently and ponder about, but for me he was a bit too egocentric.”
Alicia P wrote this review Monday, October 19 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Given to me by Libby. Awesome. Inspiring. Encouraging. Very helpful. Freeing.”
Danielle T wrote this review Thursday, August 6 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“This book was difficult to read. It does have a few words of wisdom, but is mainly about the author's path through depression and his own call to vocation. Maybe I should read again one day.”
Karen B wrote this review Friday, January 2 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“I found this book on a shelf in the cabin we were renting one year for vacation. What a treasure!
Deacon Dan wrote this review Friday, November 28 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
"Listening for the Voice of Vocation" is a great way to reflect on how God is calling you to live your life.
Find some quiet, reflective time and thoroughly enjoy this book.”
0 of 1 members found this review helpful“I had to read this for a class. It can be found in the "spiritual" section of the bookstore, which surprised me because it's not really that spriritual. It does take a departure, though, from personality and ability measures (MBTI, for example). Instead, the author suffuses the writings with considering what your experiences and more or less your gut is telling you about ways that different experiences are opening and closing to the reader all the time. I did not like Palmer's voice, though. He really comes off as a pompous, rich-boy wandering through life with enough wealth to afford his own aimlessness. Lots of us get to our calling faster because we don't have the luxury of thinking about it so much. ”
AMY S wrote this review Saturday, February 2 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No“I read this book at a time when I was searching for myself and for direction as to the next step in my journey. It is incredibly honest and painful yet inspirational. I think Palmer is a wonderful writer and an incredible individual”
Aly V wrote this review Thursday, January 24 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Parker related this little parable this way –
PhyllisWong wrote this review Thursday, November 1 2007. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
I was in my early forties. I decided to go on that amazing program called Outward Bound. I was in the midst of a mid-life crisis at this time – one of those times when the violence and terror within us start to come up. (Mine was a mid-life crisis that begin when I was about seventeen and persists to this day – and I’m now 51!)
Parker described in the middle of that Outward Bound course he faced the challenge that he most feared. He said,
They backed me up to the edge of a cliff that was 110 feet off the ground. They tied a very thin rope to my waist, a frayed and stretchy rope, and then told me to back down that cliff.
Parker said when he was half way down and lowered his eyes –
I froze. I have never been so paralyzed in my life, so full of physical fear. I knew I could do it if I could still keep going straight, but I could change directions. I just froze in sheer terror.
Parker said he was hang there for what seemed like a very long time and the teacher said it’s time that I learnt the motto of the Outward Bound School.
But then she yelled up to me words that I will never forget, words that have been genuinely empowering for me ever since. She said, “The motto of the Outward Bound Hurricane School is ‘IF YOU CAN’T GET OUT OF IT, GET INTO IT.’
From that experience, Parker wrote –
There is no way out of our inner lives, so we’d better get into them. In the downward, inward journey, the only way is in and through.
Recently, I was introduced to Parker’s little book titled, Let Your Life Speaks by my former Pastor, Rev Lau HM. This little book starts off with this poem, Ask Me –
Some time when the rive is ice ask me
mistakes I have made. Ask me whether
what I have done is my life. Others
have come in their slow way into
my thought, and some have tried to help
or to hurt; ask me what difference
their strongest love or hate has made. I will listen to what you say,
You and I can turn and look
at the silent river and wait. We know
the current is there, hidden; and there
are comings and goings from miles away
that hold the stillness exactly before us.
What the river says, that is what I say.
- William Stafford, “ASK ME”
Parker says of this poem,
“Ask me whether what I have done is my life.” For some, those words will be nonsense, nothing more than a poet’s loose way with language and logic. Of course what I have done is my life! To what am I supposed to compare it? But for others, and I am one, the poet’s words will be precise, piercing, and disquieting. They remind me of moments when it is 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?
“Let Your Life Speaks” is a book to be enjoyed in the warmth of the hot coffee cup, in the fragrant scent of roses, in the quietness of the starry night if you life seems to be just passing by. Get a copy and indulge in the wisdom of Parker as you turn the pages …..”
