Palmer’s trademark mix of the contemplative and the prophetic fills the pages of this reflection on the gifts and challenges of aging. “Every hour,” writes Parker, “I’m closer to death than I was the hour before. All of us draw closer all the time, but rarely with the acute awareness that comes when old age or calamity reminds us of where we stand.” Embracing this awareness can move us toward true shalom as we age.
Shaw teases transcendence from the everyday things that mark a life lived well and long: colonoscopies, memory hiccups, yet another first day of spring, and many meaningful conversations. “I think I am learning to inhabit my own mortality,” she writes. This book invites readers to do the same, helping us marvel at God’s work in the final movements of life.
This book has been both prod and balm to many who have found themselves disoriented by the seismic shifts of midlife. Although Rohr’s theology veers from orthodoxy in places, discerning readers can glean much from his insightful descriptions of spiritual development in life’s second half. Falling Upward helped me understand that some of the desires and ambitions that served me well in the first half of my life often hampered my journey toward Christlikeness thereafter.
As COVID-19 sends the globe into crisis, it also sends us to our knees.
This season’s greatest gift has nothing to do with discipline.
What C. S. Lewis’s senior devil would recommend in response to COVID-19.
My radioactive body brought me shame. But I learned how to bring my fears to the Cross.
