... the stranger is not a threat but an opportunity to grow in my view of reality, to grow in my own sense of possibility Parker J. Palmer More Quotes by Parker J. Palmer More Quotes From Parker J. Palmer There's often a distressing disconnect between the good words we speak and the way we live our lives. In personal relations and politics, the mass media, the academy and organized religion, our good words tend to float away even as they leave our lips, ascending to an altitude where they neither reflect nor connect with the human condition. We long for words like love, truth, and justice to become flesh and dwell among us. But in our violent world, it's risky business to wrap our frail flesh around words like those, and we don't like the odds. Parker J. Palmer like-love media odds In my own life, as winters turn into spring, I find it not only hard to cope with mud but also hard to credit the small harbingers of larger life to come, hard to hope until the outcome is secure. Spring teaches me to look more carefully for the green stems of possibility; for the intuitive hunch that may turn into a larger insight, for the glance or touch that may thaw a frozen relationship, for the stranger's act of kindness that makes the world seem hospitable again. Parker J. Palmer kindness winter spring I think the church needs to be much more countercultural than that and invite people into slowing down, into a "Be-still-and-know-that-I-am-God" mindset. Parker J. Palmer church people thinking Discovering vocation does not mean scrambling toward some prize just beyond my reach but accepting the treasure of true self I already posses. Parker J. Palmer treasure self mean There's a lot of fear connected with the inner journey because it penetrates our illusions. Taking the inner journey will lead you into some very shadowy places. You're going to learn things about yourself that you'll wish you didn't know. There are monsters in there-monsters you can't control-but trying to keep them hidden will only give them greater power. Parker J. Palmer journey wish giving I am very, very uneasy with churches that have basically said, "Well, since that's what people want and that's what sells, then were going to do our worship services like Hollywood productions. We're going to have a lot of bells and whistles. We're going to have high entertainment value, and it is going to have a lot of gloss and glitter." Parker J. Palmer hollywood church people I don't do a lot of top-down teaching. Parker J. Palmer top-down teaching I have to say that I have been blessed with significant teachers at every stage of my life. Parker J. Palmer significant blessed teacher We can teach a good, formal lesson on forgiveness as a Christian virtue and all the doctrines that are attached to it. But to be in a real-life situation, a work camp or a trip or some other activity with young people where real forgiveness needs to happen, that's a different situation altogether. And that is where the deepest learning will occur. Parker J. Palmer real christian people You are much more likely to have a holy experience in a quiet, focused, and communal context than you are when you are being entertained. Parker J. Palmer focused holy quiet I understand that there are forms of entertainment that can make people weep or jazz them up so they feel like they have had an experience. But I also know that an hour later that's faded and you are back to the difficult realities of your own life. And we need to help people know how to go beyond those difficulties to a place where God dwells. Parker J. Palmer reality people needs My favorite topping is one that a lot of people don't like. I love anchovies. Parker J. Palmer toppings my-favorite people Although there are some enormously gifted lecturers and preachers who do create community with oratory, I like to do anything I can to engage my students with each other, with me, and with the subject. And the subject, I think, always has to take prominence. Parker J. Palmer oratory community thinking God ain't finished with any of us yet. Parker J. Palmer finished Every young person needs some adult who's just wild and crazy about them! Parker J. Palmer adults crazy needs The teachers who have had the most impact on me and on most learners I know are teachers whose "selfhoods" have been deeply invested in what they are doing. Parker J. Palmer learners impact teacher I'm 67 years old now. I've had a lot of good teachers over the years; and they have been very, very different from one another. They all had passion for what they were doing, but their styles were unique to them as individuals. Parker J. Palmer passion unique teacher You don't become a good teacher by applying techniques; you don't become a good teacher by using the latest hot methodologies that are being promoted in this or that handbook. Parker J. Palmer technique hot teacher I think the pursuit of happiness is the pursuit of reality because illusion never leaves us ultimately happy. Parker J. Palmer pursuit-of-happiness reality thinking No scientist knows the world merely by holding it at arm's length: if we ever managed to build the objectivist wall between the knower and the known, we could know nothing except the wall itself. Science requires an engagement with the world, a live encounter between the knower and the known. That encounter has moments of distance, but it would not be an encounter without moments of intimacy as well. Knowing of any sort is relational, animated by a desire to come into deeper community with what we know. Parker J. Palmer wall distance knowledge
