Parker J. Palmer - On the Brink of Everything: Grace, Gravity, and Getting Old

Parker Palmer is one of our wisest minds and lives and one of my greatest mentors. He has the spirit of a poet and the stature of a prophet. There is no one Id rather eavesdrop on as he ponders the brink of everything. This book is a companion for not merely surviving a fractured world, but embodyinglike Parkerthe fiercely honest and gracious wholeness that is ours to claim at every stage of life.

KRISTA TIPPETT, founder of On Being Studios, author of Einsteins God and Becoming Wise, winner of the 2014 National Humanities Medal

Parker Palmer is the most integral and wholehearted teacher of our age. For nearly eight decades, he has seen much, questioned everything, and returned with a wisdom essential to everyone. His latest book, On the Brink of Everything, is a deep reflection on aging that offers a masters earned view of the large and the small, and how were all vital threads woven together by life. This book will stir your soul and bring you closer to everything.

MARK NEPO, author of More Together Than Alone and The Book of Awakening

Parker J. Palmers tenth wise book, On the Brink of Everything, is a wondrously rich mix of reality and possibility, comfort and story, helpful counsel and poetry, in the voice of a friend. Its an honest wake-up chime, no matter where you are in your own time line, because somehow, these pages hold all of timepast and present, stirring togetherrefreshing the spirit. This is a book of immense gratitude, consolation, and praise.

NAOMI SHIHAB NYE, author of Transfer and Voices in the Air: Poems for Listeners, and National Book Award finalist

Our entire culture is deeply in need of true elders, and you cant be one until you have arrived therechronologically, spiritually, and intellectually. Parker J. Palmer is a writer and a man who has clearly earned the title of elder. And he elders with such readability and humor! This book is a generous gift to all of usand to our attempts at a truly human civilization.

RICHARD ROHR, founder of the Center for Contemplation and Action, and author of Falling Upward and Adams Return

Parker J. Palmers books are long-treasured companions on my personal journey. His newest offering is clear-eyed and good-humored, luminously prophetic and disarmingly honest. It is tender to the core for our shared human condition and fierce with love and unguarded hope for our shared human possibility. It has the feel of a lovely kitchen table conversation between the author and reader, exploring thoughtful aging, finding meaning in hard times, and harmonizing our inner and outer landscapes at every stage of life. This book is a generous gift to a worried and weary world.

CARRIE NEWCOMER, musician, recording artist of The Beautiful Not Yet, author of A Permeable Life: Poems and Essays, and Grammy songwriting award winner

Parker Palmer has given me so many gifts through the years. His writing has done for me what I can only hope mine does for others. On the Brink of Everything has given me new and special gifts. Parker, now in his late seventies, has helped this guy in his early sixties think of my years ahead as triple wrapped in mystery. Savoring this book is a kind of mentorship in aging, and it ends in a crescendo of poetry. My first thought when I turned the last page: I want to read this again from the beginning, starting right now.

BRIAN D. McLAREN, author of The Great Spiritual Migration

Parker Palmer has been a mentor and midwife to countless young people in my generation, including me. When I was in my twenties standing at a crossroads, his book Let Your Life Speak inspired me to pursue an untraditional path as an activist-artist; he released the music within me. Now in my thirties, as the cacophony of vitriol and violence becomes deafening, his friendship teaches me how to remain faithful to my own melodies and keep playing them. In the darkness, Parker has taught me how to wonder at the night sky, keep death in my minds eye, and listen to the wisdom of my grandfather and ancestors, whose music lives within mine. He has poured these insights into a book that feels more like a treasure chest. On the Brink of Everything is filled with gems of wisdom, each a prism that helps us see our own vast interiority and sing our own truths. My greatest aspiration is to journey through life and arrive at the brink as Parker has, with humility and faithfulness, and pockets full of gems.

VALARIE KAUR, civil rights activist, lawyer, filmmaker, and founder of the Revolutionary Love Project

One of the wisest people on the planet has written one of the finest books on growing b/old gracefully. This warm and witty book will delight and inspire readers of all ages.

RICHARD LEIDER, best-selling author or coauthor of The Power of Purpose, Repacking Your Bags, and Life Reimagined

ON the BRINK of EVERYTHING

The Active Life

The Company of Strangers

The Courage to Teach

Healing the Heart of Democracy

The Heart of Higher Education (with Arthur Zajonc)

A Hidden Wholeness

Let Your Life Speak

The Promise of Paradox

To Know as We Are Known

Grace, Gravity, and Getting Old

PARKER J. PALMER

On the Brink of Everything

Copyright 2018 by Parker J. Palmer
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First Edition
Hardcover print edition ISBN 978-1-5230-9543-8
PDF e-book ISBN 978-1-5230-9544-5
IDPF e-book ISBN 978-1-5230-9545-2

2018-1

Project manager: Susan Geraghty. Text and cover designer: Paula Goldstein. Compositor: Andrea Reider. Copyeditor: Michele Jones. Proofreader: Sophia Ho.