Callings: Finding and Following an Authentic Life (Hardcover)

~ Gregg Michael Levoy (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The lure of true calling is as powerful as it is exacting and Gregg Levoy's Callings: Finding and Following an Authentic Life plays upon this common yearning. Indeed, many recognize that there floats somewhere out there "... a call to each of us to materialize ourselves." And everyone can make his or her life "come true," attests Levoy, whose work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Washington Post, and Psychology Today, if one can learn to read the signs that point one toward one's calling.

But how do we attune--clear a path through ingrained skepticism, negative conditioning, and fear so that we can hear the call? This is the question fundamental to spiritual questing. Receptivity is the first step in the art of sign reading, discerning the calls that point life choices toward meaningful action. Levoy's tools include dream interpretation, relating physical symptoms to their metaphysical correspondences (i.e. the recurring pain in the neck), and recognizing serendipitous events. Learn to discern, Levoy instructs, distinguishing, for example, between true inner guidance and the babble in our heads. And don't expect a big "call," flashing chariots and burning bushes. Rather, Levoy will help the reader cultivate a sensitivity to the still, small voice within.

Since it's inspiration through old truths and classic adages, the success of the message depends, naturally, on a kind of practical clarity. At times frustrating, Callings entices the reader toward self-transformation with New Age rhetoric and examples not always applicable to our more ordinary plights. Quoting the impassioned Annie Dillard may be swell ("The thing is to stalk your calling in a certain skilled and supple way, to locate the most tender and live spot and plug into the pulse"), but--in the long run--metaphor is metaphor and how-to, though less stately and exalted, is the practical precursor to action. Readers familiar with the literature of self-actualization will want to skim the lengthy introduction with its fervent and redundant references to our spiritual spin doctors--Sufi poets Kabir and Rumi; Joseph Campbell; Kierkegaard. But like many deft cartographers of the subterranean terrain, Levoy's mixed bag of metaphor, anecdote, and myth ultimately inspires and encourages the hungry soul to define itself in relation to the divine. For those who can afford to ask these "quality-of- life" questions, Callings offers heartfelt crazy wisdom. Above all else, it's sound nutrient in our spiritually hollow time.

From Library Journal

If life is truly a process and not a destination, the possibility of actually trying a few of the alternate routes that occasionally beckon becomes real. In this inspiring book, Levoy, formerly a columnist for the Cincinnati Inquirer, shares the personal journeys of an assortment of people who were willing to take risks to find their authentic selves, unsure whether they would achieve self-actualization or enrichment. The author followed his own calling and is now a freelance writer and lecturer and teaches journalism. Elevated far above the category of self-help by Levoy's masterly writing, this book reads more like a philosophical guide for those who dare to examine their dreams and take action to explore them. He includes an extensive bibliography and instructions on contacting the people who shared their personal stories for a "continued" dialog. Recommended, especially for those readers who've experienced enough of life to wonder if it was meant to include authenticity and joy.?Catherine T. Charvat, John Marshall Lib., Alexandria, Va.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 339 pages
• Publisher: Harmony; 1st edition (September 16, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0517705699
• ISBN-13: 978-0517705698
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.9 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #433,772 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Listening for a call..., March 10, 2004

By	FrKurt Messick "FrKurt Messick" (Bloomington, IN USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)

Hearing a call is a very difficult discernment process. Sometimes the call is clear, but the path is not. Sometimes the path is clear, but the desire is not. Gregg Levoy has done an exceptional job at being an in-print spiritual director for those seeking an entrance into the process of finding a true calling and a more authentic life.

I recently met Levoy, and heard him speak on the topic of vocation and discerning a calling at the college adjoining my seminary. His manner of public speaking is very much in concert with his style of writing -- vibrant, interesting, engaging, and honest.

What is right for me? and Where am I willing to be led? are the two essential questions -- Discernment requires that we ask these two questions continually and devotedly.

As Levoy says, 'people won't pursue their callings until the fear of doing so is finally exceeded by the pain of not doing so.' I have found this to be very true. It took a very long time to discern my call to the priesthood, and yet more time to decide that it is something I must do at all costs (and the costs have been heavy). Yet, I cannot imagine myself doing anything differently and being in any way fulfilled.

'The truest calls seem not only to keep coming back but also to make their way to us through many channels.'

Levoy integrates so much material here, from spiritual masters and the scriptural traditions of many religious faiths to modern psychology and artistic/cultural experts.

Perhaps the greatest chapter for me was that on 'Finding Clarity', in which Levoy says that 'there is such a thing as thinking too much about a calling.' As Emerson said, sometimes it is best to let the bird sing without trying to decipher the song. 'A calling is ultimately mysterious, and the process of discernment is always a bit of a guessing game.'

Levoy's guidance, in cooperation with others in my community, helped me to see a change of mindset, a change of events, a change of personalities were all converging to tell me something that I had closed my mind to, or, more accurately, had closed my heart to. So, I began to pray, even if only subconsciously, and the path began to materialise before my eyes. 'When I pray, coincidences start to happen. When I don't pray, they don't happen.' - William Temple

It also taught me that I couldn't wait for 'someday' -- how we spend our days is how we spend our lives, according to the apt observation of Annie Dillard.

And finally, it made me face what it was to keep saying no. There is a cost, and eventually God will get you anyway -- Jonah (remember Jonah and the great fish?) said no, but eventually had follow his call anyway. I learned that one source of my fear: 'One of the frightening prospects of saying yes to a calling is that you may find out who really supports you and who doesn't.'

Figuring out how to bring my call into being was the final task, and Levoy provided wisdom here as well. 'You cannot cross a chasm in two small jumps', he quoted Lloyd-George as saying; I was forced to create a response to my call, one that did not exist before.

Thus, not too long after discovering this book, I became Father Kurt, and I owe much to this book for that. But please, don't assume that it will tempt or trap you into a ministerial role--it is an excellent guide for discernment, and discernment is one of the most personal tasks for any human being. Prepare to be enlightened.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An eloquent, entertaining discussion of our callings in life, August 22, 1998

By A Customer

Gregg Levoy is a master at telling stories, using creative--often very amusing--metaphors to discuss the spiritual, abstract world of life callings. Though I expected a more direct how-to type manual on finding one's path in life, I was not disappointed in this book; on the contrary, I immensely enjoyed this more picturesque, sensitive sojourn through others' experiences with taking risks and following their callings. It inspired me to dream and begin adventures of my own!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb book!, September 7, 1998

By	D. Hahn (Mpls, MN) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The readers ahead of me have already written stunning specifc content reviews, so this will be brief!

This book is more than a book, it feels like a work of art. It's the kind of book that you know in your heart, you will read over and over, hundreds of times, and be struck each time by something different.

Mr. Levoy has followed his own calling and in doing so, has written a book of such wit and grace, that I found myself trying to memorize whole sections! In following his call, he has turned on the lights for the rest of us, still working our way through the confusing dark places.

I will buy copies of this book for my friends, but my hardcover copy will permanently stay on my bookshelves! There are only a few books that are so amazing you want them for life, and this is one of them!