On Vocation

Nic and I on Lake Michigan.

I have stumbled on a couple inspirations on vocation recently. Just last weekend, The New York Times had a great article called What's Your Plan B?. Parker Palmer spoke on Repossessing Virtue on NPR last December and moved me to pick up a couple of his books. Let Your Life Speak seems especially relevant as I encourage my son Nic - fresh out of college with a degree in film from the School of the Art Institute in Chicago. I am proud of Nic, he is working in film - picking up freelance jobs but wondering how to make ends meet. It isn't easy to be a recent graduate in these "interesting" economic times. It seems the best stimulus package might be a good dose of self-discovery, hope and perseverance.

I remember being in the same place in my early twenties. Nothing was going to stop me from reaching my dream of being a Wildlife Biologist. I spent almost all of my humble life savings supporting myself through some pretty amazing internships for a year and a half after graduating from college. It tore me apart to be laid off in the fall after my first paying job with the Forest Service. Frustration lead me to decide I should return to school to become a OB nurse. No sooner was I accepted into nursing school that I was offered and accepted a year long paid internship as a Biologist and a year later a permanent job as a Biologist. The uncertainty though was heart wrenching.

Parker Palmer makes the following points that are especially relevant for those in transition:

"I have no idea how I would have learned the truth about myself and my calling without the mistakes I have made."

" What a long time it can take to become the person one has always been!....How much dissolving and shaking of ego we must endure before we identify our deep identity - the true self...that is the authentic seed of vocation."

"In families, schools, workplaces, and religious communities we are trained away from our true self and towards images of acceptability...We are disabused of original giftedness...then, if we are awake we recover and reclaim the gift we once possessed.'

"Our deepest calling is to grow into out own authentic selfhood... as we do we find our path to service in the world."

"We must withdraw the negative projections we make on people and situations that serve mainly to mask our our fears about ourselves... and embrace our own liabilities and limits." Finding..."congruence between our inner and outer life."

We control our destiny by owning our lives. We discover our vocation by knowing our true self - by embracing our true strengths, our passions, our limitations. Accomplishment does not depend on roles or power but by putting to action what we value in ourselves. We lead by embracing opportunities to learn and grow and knowing that the universe works for us not against us. We must believe in a greatness larger then ourselves - that ours isn't the only act in town. We are happiest when we love and are loved in the broadest sense of the word. Chaos is the precondition of creativity - the only way to have a sense control of life is by not being afraid to embrace change.