“Vocation at its deepest level is. ‘This is something I can’t NOT do, for reasons I’m unable to explain to anyone else and don’t fully understand myself but that are nonetheless compelling.”

Parker Palmer

A generous, expansive invitation for us to consider what can we NOT DO. What’s the thing you find yourself doing, thinking, exploring without prompt or obligation? A friend shared with me that he “Can NOT” photograph bacteria. He discovered galaxies in his DIY Petri dishes, unable to stop himself, he’s documented his work in a children’s book for his daughters. I call that a “Good Amount of Weird“.

Compelled for reasons I do not understand

Palmer absolves us of the necessity of explanation. We need not attempt to have a sensible reason, even for ourselves. But paying attention to what and where I feel compelled, mysteriously thrust into, unable to resist.

I am compelled, for reasons I do not fully understand,

-help humans thrive

-recharge my mind and soul in the wilderness

-go first down unknown paths

-extract my interior life onto paper, pen, audio

-make maps like a cartographer documenting the topographic edges of the frontier.

Let’s close with another sojourner compelled to make maps for us to follow. “The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” Frederick Buechner

Where is your deep gladness?

Keep going,

Aaron