Let Your Life Speak
by Parker J. Palmer
Chapter II
"Now I Become Myself"
Copyright ©2000 by Jossey-Bass Inc., Publishers
San Francisco, CA

I rationalized my movement with the notion that small
institutions are more moral than large ones. But that is
patently untrue -- both about what was animating me and
about institutions! In fact, I was animated by a soul, a "true
self," that knew me better than my ego did, knew that I
needed to work outside of institutional crosscurrents and
constraints.

This is not an indictment of institutions; it is a statement
of my limitations. Among my admired friends are people who
do not have my limits, whose gifts allow them to work faith-
fully within institutions and, through those institutions, to
serve the world well. But their gift is not mine, as I learned
after much Sturm und Drang--and that is not an indictment
of me. It is simply a truth about who I am and how I am right-
fully related to the world, an ecological truth of the sort that
can point toward true vocation.

SELFHOOD, SOCIETY, AND SERVICE
By surviving passages of doubt and depression on the voca-
tional journey, I have become clear about at least one thing:
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 oth-
ers. Anytime we can listen to true self and give it the care it

LET YOUR LIFE SPEAK

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