Let Your Life Speak

With wisdom, compassion, and gentle humor, Parker J. Palmer illuminates a pathway toward vocation for all who seek the true calling of their lives. "Let Your Life Speak is one of the most important books of my entire life-I recommend it to everyone. I am thrilled it is being released anew into a world that has never needed Parker's exquisite wisdom more urgently." -KRISTA TIPPETT, President, Executive Producer and Host, On Being "With the 25th Anniversary Edition of Let Your Life Speak, now a modern classic, Parker J. Palmer deepens his place in our age as a kind and truthful visionary, a mentor of the modern heart. Carry this book with you and you will be in conversation with all that matters." -MARK NEPO, author, Falling Down and Getting Up and The Book of Awakening "Let Your Life Speak changed my life when I was in my twenties. With clarity and compassion, Parker J. Palmer showed me how to trust my own wisdom, and in doing so, ignited my life's work. Parker's wisdom will guide generations to come." -VALARIE KAUR, author of See No Stranger and Founder of the Revolutionary Love Project "For the past two decades, Let Your Life Speak has served as a vocational compass for me, my two teenagers and my father, who now walks with the ancestors. Someday, I will pass my well-worn copy to my grandchildren as a guide. Who would think that this thin-spined book would become an Ellison family heirloom." -GREGORY C. ELLISON, II, author, Fearless Dialogues: A New Movement for Justice "Some books are so powerful in the way they shift lives that they emerge canonical. Let Your Life Speak is such a book, a book that made a life and death difference for me. It allowed the inner me, the true me, to be heard, felt, and appreciated. Let Your Life Speak is Parker's gift from his broken-open heart to yours. Let it break open your heart so your life may be finally, fully heard." -JERRY COLONNA, author, Reunion: Leadership and the Longing to Belong

PARKER J. PALMER, whose books have sold more than two million copies, holds a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of California at Berkeley and thirteen honorary doctorates. Palmer is a recipient of the William Rainey Harper Award, previously given to Margaret Mead, Paulo Freire, and Elie Wiesel. He is Founder and Senior Partner of the Center for Courage & Renewal.

Gratitudes ix Introduction to the 25th Anniversary Edition xiii I. Listening to Life 1 II. Now I Become Myself 7 III. When Way Closes 29 IV. All the Way Down 43 V. Leading from Within 57 VI. There Is a Season 73 Notes 85 The Author 89 Credits 91