Callings: Finding and Following an Authentic Life

"Stunning! Wonderful! Levoy writes like a poet. His material is both spiritual and practical. I don't know another book that deals with callings in quite the same way."        
--Larry Dossey, M.D., author of Healing Words and Prayer Is Good Medicine

How do we know if we're following our true callings? How do we sharpen our senses to cut through the distractions of everyday reality and hear the calls that are beckoning us?

Callings is a passionate look at the search for authenticity. In a style that is poetic, exuberant, and keenly insightful, Gregg Levoy breathes contemporary life into the ancient topic of callings. He presents an illuminating and ultimately practical inquiry into how we listen and respond to our calls, whether at work or at home, in our relationships or in service.

Callings is the first book to examine the many kinds of calls we receive, and the great variety of channels through which they come to us. A calling may be to do something (change careers, go back to school, leave or start a relationship, move to the country, have a child) or to be something (more creative, less judgmental, more loving). You may be called toward or away from something, called to change or renew your commitment to something, or called to return to a place or pursuit in an entirely new way. You may be called toward whatever you have dared and double-dared yourself to do for as long as you can remember.

Gregg Levoy draws on the hard-won wisdom and powerful stories of people who have followed their own calls, to show us the many ways to translate a calling into action. While honoring a calling's essential mystery, the book also guides readers to ask and answer the fundamental questions that arise from any calling: How do we recognize it? How do we distinguish the true calls from the siren song? How do we handle our resistance to a call? What happens when we say no? What happens when we say yes?

Whether your interest in callings is personal or professional, and whether the calls you hear are great trumpetings or the more common daily summonses to pay attention to your intuition, you will find this beautiful book an inspiration. It is a compassionate guide to discovering your own callings and negotiating the tight passages to personal power and authenticity.

GREGG LEVOY, author of This Business of Writing, is a full-time freelance writer whose essays and articles have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Washington Post, Omni, Psychology Today, and others, and is the recipient of a first-place writing award from the Associated Press. Formerly a columnist for the Cincinnati Enquirer and adjunct professor of journalism at the University of New Mexico, he actively lectures and teaches workshops about callings.