A Hidden Wholeness: The Journey Toward an Undivided Life (includes DVD) [B0037]

2009 PB (with a couple ink-marked paragraphs) and a Circles of Trust DVD. In A Hidden Wholeness, Parker Palmer reveals the same compassionate intelligence and informed heart that shaped his best-selling books Let Your Life Speak and The Courage to Teach. Here he speaks to our yearning to live undivided lives-lives that are congruent with our inner truth-in a world filled with the forces of fragmentation. Mapping an inner journey that we take in solitude and in the company of others, Palmer describes a form of community that fits the limits of our active lives. Defining a "circle of trust" as "a space between us that honors the soul," he shows how people in settings ranging from friendship to organizational life can support each other on the journey toward living "divided no more." A Hidden Wholeness weaves together four themes that its author has pursued for forty years: the shape of an integral life, the meaning of community, teaching and learning for transformation, and nonviolent social change.

From recent Amazon/GoodReads reviews: "This book illustrated ways that living inauthentically can cause one to shrivel and shrink. This can then cause one to wear masks so that we don't even recognize the covering. "We sense that something is missing in our lives and search the world for it, not understanding that what is missing is us" (Palmer)"; "Palmer takes the reader on a journey - offering a means of reuniting with the soul. His path has roots in the Quaker tradition of silence and includes the added support of a circle of trust, a group committed to active listening, non-judgement, and deep reflection while considering life's deep questions. A beautiful process, a comfort to read."