Let Your Life Speak

As I was packing up and preparing for this new adventure in Cambridge, a dear friend "loaned" me his copy of Parker Palmer's Let Your Life Speak - Listening for the Voice of Vocation. It was the perfect book to read on the plane as I traveled from the Pacific Northwest across the nation to Harvard. The book begins with a question -- "Is the life I am living the same as the life that wants to live in me?"

There is no better question to frame this journey. The next three years while I earn my doctorate is a gift. Time to find balance. Time to create a life that is not so consumed with task completion that there is no space for reflection. Time to discover my "best fit"--the niche in which I can joyfully use my talents for greatest impact. Time to leave the "shoulds" behind, and live authentically. Palmer says, "Before you tell your life what you intend to do with it, listen for what it intends to do with you. Before you tell your life what truths and values you have decided to live up to, let your life tell you what truths you embody, what values you represent." This is time to slow down and listen.

I have been at Harvard for three weeks and this is the first time I've taken a minute to blog. What does that mean? Busy-ness is a hard habit to break. Maybe especially for school leaders. I wonder about that.