It is profoundly therapeutic to be able to stand up in your world, whatever that world may be,

private, public, whatever, and say, I am all of the above. This is who I am. I am my darkness

and I am my light. And that became part of my ongoing healing.

So as we all head towards the end of this year, wondering what might happen?

If you let go of what you thought your life would or should be or look like,

and just created this space to let it show you what it truly yearns to be.

And then follow that threat. That has been the experience of today's guest, Parkour Palmer.

So graduating Berkeley with PhD in 69, he thought he'd head into the role of academia, but instead

found himself heading to DC to become an activist and community organizer for about five years.

But something else began to call him and he took what he thought would be this short,

sojourn to a Quaker learning community that turned into 11 years. And over that time,

a new sense of calling emerged as a writer and a speaker and educator, that was his form of activism

that just fit him profoundly better and allowed him to focus on issues in education,

community leadership, spirituality, and social change. And Parkour is now the founder and senior

partner, Meredith of the Center for Courage and Renewal, which offers long-term retreat programs

for people in the serving professions, including teachers, physicians, non-profit leaders,

and clergy and others. And along the way, he has written a series of best-selling books,

including A Hidden Holiness, Let Your Life Speak, The Company of Strangers, and on the brink

of everything, grace, gravity, and getting old. In this deeply moving best-of-comer-station,

Parkour shares this journey and many of the insights that have sort of dropped into his life

along the way in this incredibly kind and gentle and open and vulnerable way. And he also shares

how three seasons of profound depression have shaped his experience of life, his lens on people,

...