AARP Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life

by Richard Rohr

Thomas Merton, the American monk, pointed out that we may spend our whole life climbing the ladder of success, only to find when we get to the top that our ladder is leaning against the wrong wall.

we speak of “falling” in love. I think it is the only way to get there. None would go freely, if we knew ahead of time what love is going to ask of us.

Falling, losing, failing, transgression, and sin are the pattern, I am sorry to report. Yet they all lead toward home.

How surely gravity's law, strong as an ocean current, takes hold of even the smallest thing and pulls it toward the heart of the world…. This is what the things can teach us: to fall, patiently to trust our heaviness. —RAINER MARIA RILKE, BOOK OF HOURS