Quoting Parker Palmer

I recently read most of Parker Palmer's book , "Let Your Life Speak". I found it to be challenging and well worth the read, particularly chapter 4, which deals with his experience of depression. That chapter may well be one of the most insightful things I've ever read about depression.

Here are three short quotes from other parts of the book...

But before we come to that center, full of light, we must travel in the dark. Darkness is not the whole of the story – every pilgrimage has passages of loveliness and joy – but it is the part of the story most often left untold. When we finally escape the darkness and stumble into the light, it is tempting to tell others that our hope never flagged, to deny those long nights we spent cowering in fear. The experience of darkness has been essential to my coming into selfhood, and telling the truth about that fact helps me stay in the light. (pg. 18)

By surviving passages of doubt and depression on the vocational journey, I have become clear about at least one thing: self-care is never a selfish act – it is simply good stewardship of the only gift I have, the gift I was put on earth to offer to others. Anytime we can listen to true self and give it the care it requires, we do so not only for ourselves but for the many others whose lives we touch. (pg. 30-31)

If we are to live our lives fully and well, we must learn to embrace the opposites, to live in a creative tension between our limits and our potentials. We must honor our limitations in ways that do not distort our nature, and we must trust and use our gifts in ways that fulfill the potentials God gave us. (pg. 55)