In the first half of life, we are naturally and rightly preoccupied with establishing our identity—climbing, achieving, and performing. But those concerns will not serve us as we grow older and begin to embark on a further journey, one that involves challenges, mistakes, loss of control, broader horizons, and necessary suffering that actually shocks us out of our prior comfort zone.
Eventually we need to see ourselves in a different and more life-giving way. This message of “falling down”—that is in fact moving upward—is the most resisted and counterintuitive of messages in the world’s religions including, and most especially, Christianity.
Falling Upward offers a new paradigm for understanding one of the most profound of life’s mysteries: how our failings can be the foundation for our ongoing spiritual growth. Drawing on the wisdom from time-honored myths, heroic poems, great thinkers, and sacred religious texts, Richard Rohr explores in this counter-intuitive book  the two halves of life and shows that those who have fallen, failed, or “gone down” are the only ones who understand “up.”
We grow spiritually more by doing it wrong than by doing it right.
Our failures and disappointments in life are actually stepping stones to the spiritual joys of the second half of life.
Powerful thoughts in this provocative book.
Thanks to my friend Charlie Lowell for giving me this unexpected gift. As I read, waves of encouragement and hope sweep over my body and soul.
More soon…
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