The following excerpt was the reading at the Harvard/Cambridge Peace Walk last week. It's from "The Moral Imagination: The Art and Soul of Building Peace", by John Paul Lederach (Oxford University Press, 2005), pp 167-68.

We often seek our sense of place by what we do professionally. This is where the confusion comes that links vocation with work, jobs, and titles. But vocation is not a profession. It is definitely not "work," and even less a "job." Vocation is knowing and staying true to the deep voice. Vocation stirs inside, calls out to be heard, to be followed. It beckons us home. When we live in a way that keeps vocation within eyesight and earshot, like the needle of a compass, vocation provides a sense of location, place, and direction. This is why we may say to friends as a deep compliment of appreciation for their genuine acceptance, "I feel comfortable here with you. I can just be myself. I feel at home."

People who are close to home no matter where they live or travel or what work they do are people who walk guided by their voice. They are voicewalkers: they hear the reed flute. On a permanent journey, they always are within earshot of home.

I have known a lot of voicewalkers in my life. They rarely stand out immediately. You come to recognize them after a while more than from first impressions. Lives don't speak in one-time conversations. They speak over time.

You may notice them first for the things they don't confuse. They don't confuse their job or activities with who they are as people. They don't confuse getting credit with success, or recognition with self-worth. They don't confuse criticism for an enemy. They don't confuse truth with social or political power. They don't confuse their work with saving the world. They don't confuse guilt with motivation.

Then you may notice something that is not easy to put a finger on: It is not so much what they do as who they are that makes a difference. They listen in a way that their own agenda does not seem to be in the way. They respond more from love than fear. They laugh at themselves. They cry with others' pain, but never take over their journey. They know when to say no and have the courage to do it. They work hard but are rarely too busy. Their life speaks.