Let Your Life Speak
Big Takeaway:
Our vocation is revealed to us through our experiences and doing inner work through self-discovery and spiritual reflection.
Overview
This tiny little book, just 5×7 inches and 120 pages, packs some big messages!
It’s beautifully written, based on several essays and speeches the author had previously written. They all come together so well to inspire us to take a deeper look into our vocation, or calling.
Dr. Palmer uses his own journey to show us how doing the inner work is so critical to discovering our true vocation.
This passage on page 3 sums introduces that idea:
Before you tell your life what you intend to do with it, listen for what it intends to do with you.
Dr. Palmer advocates for recognizing our true nature and using our natural God-given talents, strengths and weaknesses to better the world as well as ourselves and our families.
I love his idea about self-care not being selfish; it’s good stewardship of our gifts so we can more fully touch the lives of others.
Another major theme in the book is having The Way open before us often means recognizing The Way being closed behind us is actually showing us The Way. (And for the author and others in some religious circles, The Way equals our path foward).
What he discovers is our experiences, especially our failures, teach us where NOT to go.
Dr. Palmer also spends several chapters describing his episodes with depression and the impact those have had on his journey. And while he’s very open about how hard they were, he shines light on how he also learned so much from them.
Let Your Life Speak truly is an inspiring read. I these takeaways inspire you to read it and lean into your own journey of self-care so you can touch others more deeply.
