Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life
Written and Narrated By: Richard Rohr
Length: 6 hrs and 27 mins
Somewhat startling, but very uplifting, view of the second half of Life…
Falling Upward was unanimously voted in as My Next Listen, and one voter hoped that perhaps some of the wrong they’ve done in their life would ultimately turn out to be right. HAHAHAHAHAHA!!! >Heavy Sigh< I'm guessing that right about now, I’m in that same boat.
Cuz, you see, today is my 25th Wedding Anniversary, and yesterday my husband and I spent quite a bit of time at the doctor’s office. All is well! All is well! It’s just that it’s had us contemplating this, the latter part of our lives in a light different from what we thought it would be when we were yea-high to an ant. Life’s sooo much different when you’re living on the downslope!
Enter Father Richard Rohr and his thoughts on how life is to be lived in the second half.
He starts by clarifying that the second half need not be chronological; sometimes we get to it in our early years through experience and contemplation (Phew! Because I started my existential crisis when I was twenty-years old: It was diagnosed as Excessive Rumination… HA!), and sometimes we’re FAR older in years before we get hit by the Cosmic 2-by-4. We start to see things differently, and mostly, we start seeing the Goals we’ve had are keeping us down, holding us back from living worthwhile lives. Security and Success turn out to not be all they’re cracked up to be.
Whilst I was listening to Rohr speaking of how Life opens up to us, how we shoooould be looking to the world and its people, our cosmic family, for peace and motivation, I remembered what my aging dad once told me. He said, “Ya know, the older I get, the more grateful I am to have as much as I have, that other people don’t have as much.” And his later years were full of giving generously to charities that had always been near and dear to his heart but which lately became verrrrry important to him. I remember that; I honor him for that.
Because, as I stated in an earlier review, to me? Alas, the older I’ve gotten, the more conservative I’ve become. And to Rohr, that means stagnation and death of the soul. We should be seeking out causes, we should be seeking out others in an effort to unite with Spirit, to unite with God. This is something that I’ve GOTTA start doing/being/becoming!
Fear not, though there’s plenty of Scripture in this book, Rohr is all-inclusive: He loves EVERYbody, and he posits that Jesus danged well did also: So blast all religions that are limiting in the belief systems they would have their congregants adhere to! Plus, there’s plenty in the way of poetry, plenty in the way of mythology (With a special shoutout to The Odyssey and Odysseus’s journey and later life according to prophecy) to keep the listener’s body and soul together. It’s quite inspiring.
Rohr has a soothing voice, but he’s not flat-toned or boring—you won’t be nodding off. I did, however, have to up my x1.25 listening speed to x1.5 to keep things flowing in an interesting manner. But that’s the absolute worst that can be said about his narration style.
While Rohr does state that you probably WILL meet with bouts of depression (There can be no enlightenment without seeing how incredibly dark you’ve been), this is mostly a reassuring and life-affirming book. Apparently, the first half of life is receiving the script; the second half is embracing it and even writing some of it. We first take. Then we GIVE. And God loves nothing so much as all of us living and letting our lights shine brightly.
Okay, okay, okay. The doctors’ appointment, the cracking knees, the stiff neck? That’s all still kinda sorta getting me down. But the way Rohr writes about the mindset? It reminds me of what my therapist CONSTANTLY tells me: There’s one way to look at it, but let’s REFRAME that.
Cuz there’s ALWAYS another way to see things, another way to view life.
And that stiff neck? Maaaaybe that’s happening just cuz I wanna turn and see the next great thing in my life!
As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.