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101 " The only way to become whole is to put our arms lovingly around -everything- we know ourselves to be: self-serving and generous, spiteful and compassionate, cowardly and courageous, treacherous and trustworthy. We must be able to say to ourselves and to the world at large, "I am -all- of the above." If we can't embrace the whole of who we are--embrace it with transformative love--we'll imprison the creative energies hidden in our own shadows and be unable to engage creatively with the world's complex mix of shadow and light. "
― Parker J. Palmer , On the Brink of Everything: Grace, Gravity, and Getting Old
102 " The underground is a dangerous but potentially life-giving place to which depression takes us; a place where we come to understand that the self is not set apart or special or superior but is a common mix of good and evil, darkness andlight; a place where we can finally embrace the humanity we share with others. That is the best image I can offer not only of the underground but also of the field of forces surrounding the experience of God. "
― Parker J. Palmer , Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation
103 " There are times when the heart, like the canary in the coal mine, breathes in the world's toxicity and begins to die. "
― Parker J. Palmer , Healing the Heart of Democracy: The Courage to Create a Politics Worthy of the Human Spirit
104 " Good teaching is an act of hospitality toward the young, and hospitality is always an act that benefits the host even more than the guest. The concept of hospitality arose in ancient times when this reciprocity was easier to see: in nomadic cultures, the food and shelter one gave to a stranger yesterday is the food and shelter one hopes to receive from a stranger tomorrow. By offering hospitality, one participates in the endless reweaving of a social fabric on which all can depend—thus the gift of sustenance for the guest becomes a gift of hope for the host. It is that way in teaching as well: the teacher’s hospitality to the student results in a world more hospitable to the teacher. "
― Parker J. Palmer , The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher's Life
105 " Every profession that attracts people for “reasons of the heart” is a profession in which people and the work they do suffer from losing heart. Like teachers, these people are asking, “How can we take heart again so that we can give heart to others?”—which is why they undertook their work in the first place. "
106 " I set before you life or death, blessing or curse. Therefore, choose life" (Deuteronomy 30:19). Why, I wondered, would God waste precious breath on saying something so obvious? I had failed to understand theperverse comfort we sometimes get from choosing death in life, exempting ourselves from the challenge of using our gifts, of living our lives in authentic relationship with others. "
107 " Wholeness does not mean perfection: it means embracing brokenness as an integral part of life. Knowing this gives me hope that human wholeness-mine, yours, ours-need not be a utopian dream, if we can use devastation as a seedbed for new life. "
― Parker J. Palmer , A Hidden Wholeness: The Journey Toward an Undivided Life
108 " Some journeys are direct, and some are circuitous; some are heroic, and some are fearful and muddled. But every journey, honestly undertaken, stands a chance of taking us toward the place where our deep gladness meets the world's deep need. "
109 " In the presence of a newly minted human being, I am reminded of what wholeness looks like. And I am sometimes moved to wonder, "Whatever became of me? "
110 " self-care is never a selfish act-it is simply good stewardship of the only gift I have, the gift I was put on earth to offer to others. Anytime we can listen to true self and give it the care itrequires, we do so not only for ourselves but for the many others whose lives we touch. "
111 " To grow in love and service, you must value ignorance as much as knowledge and failure as much as success. "
112 " Citizenship is a way of being in the world rooted in the knowledge that I am a member of a vast community of human and nonhuman beings that I depend on for essentials I could never provide for myself. "
113 " Rightly understood, a myth is an effort to tell truths that cannot be told with mere facts or known by the senses and the mind alone, truths that take form only in that integrative place called the heart. "
114 " Violence is what we get when we do not know what else to do with our suffering. "
115 " no punishment anyone might inflict on them could possibly be worse than the punishment they inflict on themselves by conspiring in their own diminishment. "
116 " For the good [person] to realize that it is better to be whole than to be good is to enter on a strait andnarrow path compared to which his [or her] previous rectitude was flowery license. "
117 " The English word "truth" comes from a Germanic root that also gives rise to our word "troth," as in the ancient vow "I pledge thee my troth." With this word one person enters a covenant with another, a pledge to engage in mutually accountable and transforming relationship...to know in truth is to become betrothed, to engage the known with one's whole self...to know in truth is to be known as well. "
― Parker J. Palmer , To Know as We Are Known: A Spirituality of Education
118 " does it mean to listen to a voice before it is "
119 " First, we all have an inner teacher whose guidance is more reliable than anything we can get from a doctrine, ideology, collective belief system, institution, or leader. Second, we all need otherpeople to invite, amplify, and help us discern the inner teacher's voice "
120 " Honest, open questions are countercultural, "