Top Takeaway:
The first half of life we attend to our ego then the struggles we encounter tear down the protections of our ego to uncover our True Self in the second half of life.
Overview
As you can guess by the subtitle, this is not a career or business book, but more about our whole self… and how we can get that wholeness, which happens in the second half of life.
The author, Richard Rohr, is a Catholic priest know for his service and study across all sorts of religions and communities.
He uses that same inclusiveness in the book, drawing from many types of spiritual texts and teaching to our own journey from the first half to the second.
So this isn’t a “Catholic” book, but one which does lean in heavily on our spiritual journeys.
My big takeaway from the book is that in the first half of life we’re attending to our ego: building our identity and security. Once the ego’s been addressed, the struggles and suffering we encounter break down the facade we’ve built to protect the ego, allowing us to uncover our True Self underneath. This moves us into our second half, a time of our soul swimming in abundance, grace and freedom.
Father Rohr does a beautiful job framing our natural journey through classic spiritual texts, philosophical teachings as well as poems and his own experiences as a prison chaplain, pastoral counselor and retreat leader.
He uses these to define and illustrate the two halves of life and also gets us deep into the beauty of a rich, full life, one in which our sufferings are actually necessary in order to reach our True Self and enjoy deep peace and contentment.
This passage in the introduction to the introduction says it best, and shows his inspiring writing style:
Each thing and every person must act out its nature fully, at whatever cost. It is our life’s purpose, and the deepest meaning of “natural law.” We are here to give back fully and freely what was first given to us – but now writ personally – by us! It is probably the most courageous and free act we will ever perform – and it takes both halves of our life to do it fully. The first half of life is discovering the script and the second half is actually writing it and owning it.
This book has inspired me every time I’ve read it – just so full of wisdom! If you have any topics you’d like to chat about in this book…. or any others…. just let me know!
