Falling Upward: A Spirituality For The Two Halves Of Life

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People who’ve had any genuine spiritual experience always know that they don’t know. They are utterly humbled before mystery. They are in awe before the abyss of it all, in wonder at eternity and depth, and a Love, which is incomprehensible to the mind.” In Falling Upward, Fr. Richard Rohr seeks to help readers understand the tasks of the two halves of life and to show them that those who have fallen, failed, or "gone down" are the only ones who understand "up." The Companion Journal helps those who have (and those who have not) read Falling Upward to engage more deeply with the questions the book raises. Using a blend of quotes, questions for individual and group reflection, stories, and suggestions for spiritual practices, it provides a wise guide for deepening the spiritual journey. . . at any time of life. I rather liked this book. And I think I can heartily recommend it to all my friends who are fast approaching "a certain age," as a writer of gently oblique phraseology - like Henry James - might put it.

After completing the mission we return to where he started, but improved with the “boon”, the gift for those to whom we are returning. Letting Go of Our Ego Lauren F. Winner is vicar of St. Joseph's Episcopal Church in Durham, North Carolina, and associate professor at Duke Divinity School. Her books include The Dangers of Christian Practice.Still not sure how our free fall calculator works? Don't worry – we prepared a simple example to walk you through it.

Much of this falling upward has involved what Rohr calls a "necessary suffering" - to strip away some of the ego agendas that comprise so much of the "first half of life". Two of the greatest "wisdom" gifts I have been given in the last 5 years are offered by Rohr in two of his previous books - a willingness to accept necessary suffering ("Everything Belongs") and the freedom to move beyond the judging, categorizing dualistic mind into the freedom of non-dualistic thinking ("The Naked Now"). In this book, Rohr further develops these ideas, among others, to illustrate the journey into a second-half-of-life. I'm a little skeptical of approaches to spirituality that seem to overemphasize finding God within oneself. There's some truth to it, I think. We are made in God's Image and can grow to be more Christlike though the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Greater self understanding is essential to understanding our relationship to God. But it can also lead to self-justification, even at the expense of others in the relative judgements we then make about them. We can end up trusting too much in our own inclinations as a basis for our understanding of God.Maybe being a grandparent and seeing parents in their later years gives me pause to ask "where do I fit in? What will yield the fruit I am to produce?" I have been doing some Falling Upwards work through Alanon and my new franciscan based church community where Rohr's "everything belongs" is a motto. His "Both/And" inclusionary philosophy is biblically referenced which strengthens my love for the pursuit of that spirit which is within us all. Being a fan of biographies, I want to read Merton, Dali Lama, Helen Keller, and others who lived a full second half life.