Bouncing Back and Leaping Forward

“Are you living the life that wants to live in you?” – Parker Palmer, PhD, author

This past week, I had the privilege of co-facilitating my second Bounce Travels retreat in Sedona with my PeerRx partner and friend, Corey Martin. One year ago, I wrote about the question in the quote above as I prepared to lead our first retreat there. Coming back a year later, I’m struck by how the question still reverberates – and even more deeply now as I find myself immersed in “liminicious” space (my word for the year) in preparation for transitioning out of my present interim department chair leadership role January 5th. 

There’s something about Sedona’s red rock landscape that invites honest listening. Beneath the towering cliffs and vast skies, external noise quiets enough for the inner voice to be heard again. Each participant came seeking something different – renewal, direction, refuge, courage, support, encouragement, but all shared a willingness to pause long enough to hear what life itself, right now, might be asking of them.

Palmer’s question, “Are you living the life that wants to live in you?” turns the usual self-improvement script on its head. It’s not about striving harder or doing more. It’s about surrendering to the life that already wants expression through us, if only we’ll get out of the way. In the company of others willing to do that same listening, I was reminded how contagious authenticity can be. One person’s courage to speak their truth often becomes another’s permission slip to do the same.

As I re-enter the routines and demands of daily life, I’m aware of how quickly that inner clarity can fade without regular reconnection – to myself, and to those who help me remember who I am when I forget. That’s where the PeerRx Buddy Check comes in. A simple “How’s your spirit?” or “What’s stirring in you lately?” can be the nudge someone needs to reawaken their own listening.

So this week, when you check in with your PeerRx partner or another colleague, try sharing what came up for you when you read Palmer’s question prior to any internal “filtering” or negative self-talk about being “practical” or what’s really “possible.”  Ask them what life might be longing to live in and through them right now. You never know what conversation – or transformation – such a simple question might catalyze.  Below are the last lines from my poem, “Threshold,” which I wrote after last year’s Bounce retreat.  They speak directly to this question.  In the weeks and months ahead, may we each find the courage to live more fully into the life that’s already waiting within us.

What if the impossible

of the future life

you don’t dare to entertain
is already waiting … patiently,
just beyond

the threshold
of your

      imagination ….