I’ve recently been re-reading the wonderful book by Parker Palmer written over 20 years but wow does it still pack a punch! Quoting a poem by May Sarton:
‘Now I become myself
It’s taken time, many years and places.
I have been dissolved and shaken,
Worn other people faces….’
The section goes on to talk about the journey of becoming self which can take ever so long!! Its really a question of vocation. How much dissolving and shaking of ego do we have to do through!
Vocation in this context not as a voice calling us from outside (perhaps an old religious idea) but from our inner self calling us to be the person we are born to be. And how this goes on for a lifetime. We are constantly being called to be not who we think we ought to be but the person who is out true self. This indeed takes ‘time, many years and places.’
