From “Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation” by Parker J. Palmer
After a few months of deepening frustrations, I took my troubles to an older Quaker woman well known for her thoughtfulness and candor, “Ruth,” I said, “people keep telling me that ‘way will open.’ Well, I sit in the silence, I pray, I listen for my calling, but way is not opening. I’ve been trying to find my vocation for a long time, and I still don’t have the foggiest idea of what I’m meant to do. Way may open for other people, but it’s sure not opening for me.”
Ruth’s reply was a model of Quaker plain-speaking. “I’m a birthright Friend,” she said somberly, “and in sixty-plus years of living, way has never opened in front of me.” She paused, and I started sinking into despair. Was this wise woman telling me that the Quaker concept of God’s guidance was a hoax?”
Then she spoke again, this time with a grin. “But a lot of way has closed behind me, and that’s had the same guiding effect.”