...a funny thing happened on the way to my vocation. Today, twenty-five years after I left education in anger and fear, my work is deeply related to the renewal of educational institutions. I believe that this is possible only because my true self dragged me, kicking and screaming, toward honoring its nature and needs, forcing me to find my rightful place in the ecosystem of life, to find a right relation to institutions with which I have a lifelong lover's quarrel. Had I denied my true self, remaining "at my post" simply because I was paralyzed with fear, I would almost certainly be lost in bitterness today instead of serving a cause I care about.
Rosa Parks took her stand with clarity and courage. I took mine by diversion and default. Some journeys are direct, and some are circuitous; some are heroic, and some are fearful and muddled. But every journey, honestly undertaken, stands a chance of taking us toward the place where our deep gladness meets the world's deep need.
As May Sarton reminds us, the pilgrimage toward true self will take "time, many years and places." The world needs people with the patience and passion to make that pilgrimage not only for their own sake but also as a social and political act. The world still waits for the truth that will set us free -- my truth, your truth, our truth -- the truth that was seeded in the earth when each of us arrived here formed in the image of God. Cultivating that truth, I believe is the authentic vocation of every human being.
-- Parker Palmer
