Episode 37: Notes In the Margins - Parker J. Palmer & The Red Thread

For each Growing Edge Podcast episode, we offer a conversation starter that you can download from our website. You can use this with a small group or for your own meditation or journaling. 

1. Parker spoke about deep intuition and following where it leads.  Have you ever had a time in your life when you felt a pull, a call to a growing edge and you followed?  Can you tell a story about such an experience? 

2. Parker spoke about living a whole and undivided life, when our inner and outer lives are aligned, constantly informing one another.  Have you ever felt like your inner was not in sync with your outer life?  What leads to that kind of “disconnect?” 

3. What does the phrase "befriending my mistakes" or “befriending my shadow” bring up for you?  Was there a mistake/shadow that helped you learn something you needed to learn, but might not have learned otherwise?  

4. Parker and Carrie spoke about the red threads in his life and work, one being a fascination with “bafflements” and willingness to engage with life-giving questions. What red threads can you trace in your life? Are there questions that have returned to you time and again? What has served as a guiding principle or touchstone in your life? 

5.  Parker’s "The Poem I Would Have Writ" is filled with thoughts about power of words said and unsaid, the passage of time, and how our lives are themselves a kind of text, even poetry. Read through the poem and underline phrases that jumped out or caught your attention. Talk about one or more of the parts you marked: what does it evoke in your own life?