Customer Reviews

An Undivided Life

5 star:		(34)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Parker Palmer has gifted us all with his revealing reflections and insights about living an undivided life. He writes about the conflict that we experience when our professional life and our inner beliefs are not aligned.
"A Hidden Wholeness" addressed many questions for me including:
What happens when the person that I have become, shaped by my work experiences, faces decisions that have to be made... decisions that I know will feel 'bad' or 'wrong' because they threaten my integrity?
What happens when I find myself part of an organization or profession that has evolved and changed in ways that are troubling?
What happens when I feel stuck between a rock and a hard place and can't see clearly where to go?
What happens when advice from others and self-help books are of little or no value?
Palmer shows how we can support one another in today's busy and often impersonal world by creating a unique and very special kind of community. The ideas presented in this book are well grounded and applicable to all.
This is an important book for all individuals who are concerned about or troubled by the divisions that exist in the lives we lead. Spending a few quiet hours with Parker Palmer's new book, "A Hidden Wholeness", may just change your mind about what is possible... and this book is one that you will want to pass on and share!

By everyman I mean, of course, men and women, young and old, retired and working, republicans and democrats, believers and non-believers. This is a book I wish I'd found years ago (before it was written)!

Almost everyone lives the divided life. (I suspect the Dalai Lama does not). As Palmer notes, sometimes we have to -- this is a choice we sometimes must choose to make. One of the reasons I love this book so is that Palmer does not have rigid judgmental expectations of us (we probably are harsh enough on ourselves). He offers guidelines and explanations for the human condition, and some help on getting through.

Parker Palmer takes a long time Quaker practice -- the Clearness Committee - and uses it to provide for everyone a Circle of Trust. This mutual support network is unusual -- it isn't an advisory committee but more support for listening to that inner voice which we may joke about, but which exists (you know, the one you should have listened to, that nagging feeling, that annoying little warning sign).

One thing that makes us crazy is the denial of that inner voice, our true self, the divided side of self that knows the questionable aspects of our work life, the one we hush up so we can get by and make a living. This isn't just a teacher's issue or a spiritual issue. For some it may be a spiritual divide; for others, a more humanistic one. In any case, we become emotionally, mentally and otherwise unbalanced if our day to day movements and choices feel separate from -- or in conflict with -- our beliefs and values, and yet we deny that they are so.

We do not allow ourselves to hear that inner voice, afraid of the changes we might have to make. We smush it down, despite knowing intellectually that anything you smush down in one area pops up in another. This book offers recognition of this conflict we are in, and gives us ways we can listen without, necessarily, having to make changes that will make us walk out from or get fired from our daily bread earning jobs.

This is one to have, to give, to read and reread, to keep by the bedside or take on business trips.

For most of our lives we have talked about, experimented with, and attempted many forms of spiritual community, often with disappointing results. Not until we met Parker Palmer did we find and learn reliable ways to not only explore our inner lives, but to witness and discover the 'hidden wholeness,' not only in ourselves, but in others, in cirlces of trust. We have been priviiledged to learn this way of living and being in community through working with Parker and other facilitators through the Center for Teacher Formation over the last ten years. Now Parker, in HIDDEN WHOLENESS, shares his legacy, the 'live encounter' thousands of people have experienced through a retreat process he began. Now, the reader can find, in clear, simple language, a description of these practices, and begin to consider a way of being with others that honors the soul and supports us in living the undivided life we all deeply yearn for.

Caryl & Jay Casbon
Bend, Oregon

In A HIDDEN WHOLENESS, the highly respected writer, lecturer, teacher and activist, Parker J. Palmer describes the creation of a "circle of trust," a specific kind of community that welcomes the soul and helps those involved to hear its voice. Over the last several years, Palmer and his colleagues at the Center for Courage and Renewal [www.couragerenewal.org] have forged, tested, and re-worked the practices and principles of creating such circles. This book reflects both Palmer's own transformation from living a divided life to finding the courage to live divided no more. He reflects on his own and others experience as they have moved into circles of trust to live lives of deep integrity.

"Circles of Trust" are not easy things to create. Individuals, communities, or congregations looking for ways to work with long-standing problems of isolation, fear, and soul-forgetfulness will find reason for optimism in this writing, but readers looking for "seven easy steps" will not find them here. Parker Palmer is a sharp and witty writer who invites the rest of us into a practice that is messy, countercultural, and deceptively complex. For those willing to take the journey, this book, like the circles of trust it speaks of, offers lessons on the power of trust and acceptance as "soul and role" are reunited.

[...]

Palmer offers hope for a 21st century expression of community - intentional, connected and open. Offering a way to break through barriers internally (individually) and within the community (collectively), Palmer's method provides help and hope from a spiritual perspective - free of advice, full of hope and honoring diversity.

Wow, this was a life-changing book. I was expecting more of a self-help type book, but this was more about the way communities should function in helping individuals find the wisdom within themselves to deal with life. More of a community-help than a self-help approach. From now on I will work on coming alongside people, being available, and asking thoughtful, caring questions, and avoid giving advice. I also hope to start several circles of trust as outlined in the book, since nothing of the sort is currently available in my area. You will find this book very enlightening if you have been having trouble figuring out what you want, and/or have been frustrated by an inability to get others to follow your advice.

I ordered it for the purpose of a daily devotional. I am a seminary student and have read other things from Palmer. He does a great job of introducing us to an undivided life with integrity.

Parker Palmer takes the title of this book from Thomas Merton who claimed that "There is in all things...a hidden wholeness." Parker draws on his own experiences and work with educators, clergy, politicians, community organizers, parents, doctors, lawyers, and people of other walks of life to build "circles of trust" where the shy soul can speak its own truth with conviction without denying the truth of anyone else's soul.

The first chapter offers images of integrity - "the state or quality of being entire, complete, and unbroken....unimpaired, unadulterated, or genuine state, corresponding to its original condition." Through his own stories of disclosure, Parker Palmer invites the reader to look deeply within for the dividedness of life - where we extinguish parts of ourselves - and to embrace brokenness as an integral part of who we are. The signs of a divided life are explored in Chapter 2.

In Chapters 3 - 5 Palmer outlines how the soul and role in life can be reunited into a life of wholeness. Drawing on his Quaker roots, Palmer invites the reader to consult the "inner teacher," which Thomas Merton called the true self, Buddhists call original nature, Hasidic Jews call a spark of the divine, and humanists call identity and integrity. Palmer explores the paradox of our solitary journey toward an undivided life in community - a special community of trust, a circle of trust.


Palmer uses a metaphor to describe the deepest part of our being: the soul is like a wild animal.

Like a wild animal, the soul is tough, resilient, resourceful, savvy, and self-sufficient: it knows how to survive in hard places....If we want to see a wild animal, we know that the last thing we should do is go crashing through the woods yelling for it to come out. But if we will walk quietly into the woods, sit patiently at the base of a tree, breathe with the earth, and fade into our surroundings, the wild creature we seek might put in an appearance.

Chapters 5-9 outline the preparations required to embark on the journey to wholeness and describes in detail practices necessary to create a community of trust where the soul feels safe enough to show up and make its claim on our lives. The final chapter challenges the reader to use the principles and practices developed in the book to walk the path of nonviolence.

This book is a rich resource for all who yearn for greater wholeness and integrity in life.

"This book," writes Parker Palmer, "brings together four themes I have been musing on since my mid-twenties: the shape of an integral life, the meaning of community, teaching and learning for transformation, and nonviolent social change." Writing from his Quaker tradition (think "inner light"), most of this book explores the first of these four themes. How do we join our inner and outer lives into an undivided whole? How do we bring together "soul and role?" Instead of impersonating ourselves, wearing masks, living on the surface of social images, accepting how other people define us, etc., how do we discover our true selves? We do it through forming what Palmer calls "circles of trust" where others can help us to hear the voice of our individual and unique "inner teacher." These circles of trust function much like church small groups, only they are much more intentional about their narrow purpose, and have very strict guidlines (eg, "no fixing, no saving, no advising, and no setting each other straight"). In these groups we hold each other safe, and neither invade or evade. I love the notion of integration and wholeness. I am less convinced of the wisdom of listening to my own inner voices, and sense a need for an "outside" voice from God and Scripture to help me understand my true identity in Christ. The Lutheran tradition provides a balance. Palmer's book does not help here because even though he is a Christian, this book is written for the broadest possible audience (school teachers, business people, health care workers, etc.). It is a good half loaf; I'd love to hear his specifically Christian version.

Parker Palmer describes a way of going more deeply into knowing who you are and who you can become by listening deeply to your soul/your deepest self as a guide within a respectful gathering of companions on that way. The title and subtitles tell the essence of that journey. I recommend this book without reservation and have created a Circle of Trust with people I know. Everyone rejoices in the format Parker offers, having glimpsed the possibility of finding the way to deep peace and authentic action in their lives within a supportive gathering of companions.