β
Do not be angry with the rain; it simply does not know how to fall upwards.
β
β
Vladimir Nabokov
β
O human race, born to fly upward, wherefore at a little wind dost thou so fall?
β
β
Dante Alighieri (The Divine Comedy: The Inferno, the Purgatorio and the Paradiso)
β
Before the truth sets you free, it tends to make you miserable.
β
β
Richard Rohr (Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life)
β
every time God forgives us, God is saying that God's own rules do not matter as much as the relationship that God wants to create with us.
β
β
Richard Rohr (Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life)
β
The most common one-liner in the Bible is, "Do not be afraid." Someone counted, and it occurs 365 times.
β
β
Richard Rohr (Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life)
β
Sin happens whenever we refuse to keep growing.
β
β
Richard Rohr (Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life)
β
Until we learn to love others as ourselves, it's difficult to blame broken people who desperately try to affirm themselves when no one else will.
β
β
Richard Rohr (Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life)
β
Fish die belly upward, and rise to the surface. It's their way of falling.
β
β
AndrΓ© Gide
β
When you get your,'Who am I?', question right, all of your,'What should I do?' questions tend to take care of themselves
β
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Richard Rohr (Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life)
β
The ego hates losing β even to God.
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β
Richard Rohr (Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life)
β
I do not think you should get rid of your sin until you have learned what it has to teach you.
β
β
Richard Rohr (Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life)
β
Much of the work of midlife is to tell the difference between those who are dealing with their issues through you and those who are really dealing with you.
β
β
Richard Rohr (Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life)
β
The night is alive with stars, and when I lie down and look up, I get lost up there. I feel like Iβm falling, but upward, into the abyss of sky above me.
β
β
Markus Zusak (I Am the Messenger)
β
People who know how to creatively break the rules also know why the rules were there in the first place.
β
β
Richard Rohr (Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life)
β
The cross solved our problem by first revealing our real problem, our universal pattern of scapegoating and sacrificing others. The cross exposes forever the scene of our crime.
β
β
Richard Rohr (Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life)
β
Change is not what we expect from religious people. They tend to love the past more than the present or the future.
β
β
Richard Rohr (Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life)
β
In the second half of life, people have less power to infatuate you. But they also have much less power to control you or hurt you.
β
β
Richard Rohr (Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life)
β
Have you ever watched a leaf leave a tree? It falls upward first, and then it drifts toward the ground, just as I find myself drifting towards you.
β
β
Beth Kephart (Undercover (Hardcover))
β
I have prayed for years for one good humiliation a day, and then, I must watch my reaction to it. I have no other way of spotting both my denied shadow self and my idealized persona.
β
β
Richard Rohr (Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life)
β
When we fail we are merely joining the great parade of humanity that has walked ahead of us and will follow after us.
β
β
Richard Rohr (Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life)
β
The human ego prefers anything, just about anything, to falling, or changing, or dying. The ego is that part of you that loves the status quo β even when it's not working. It attaches to past and present and fears the future.
β
β
Richard Rohr (Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life)
β
...in the intoxication of falling, man was prone to believe himself propelled upward.
β
β
Hermann Broch (The Death of Virgil)
β
Kylie watched as his shirttail upward, exposing a very hard abdomen. The hem of his shirt inched higher, and she took in the cutest inny belly button she'd ever seen. And then his chest. Solid. Hard. A few drops of water glistened against his skin. Hear heart beat to the sound of passion again.
β
β
C.C. Hunter (Born at Midnight (Shadow Falls, #1))
β
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.
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β
Richard Rohr (Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life)
β
Most people confuse their life situation with their actual life, which is an underlying flow beneath the everyday events.
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β
Richard Rohr (Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life)
β
We all become well-disguised mirror image of anything that we fight too long or too directly. That which we oppose determines the energy and frames the questions after a while. Most frontal attacks on evil just produce another kind of evil in yourself, along with a very inflated self-image to boot.
β
β
Richard Rohr (Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life)
β
If change and growth are not programmed into your spirituality, if there are not serious warnings about the blinding nature of fear and fanaticism, your religion will always end up worshiping the status quo and protecting your present ego position and personal advantage as if it were God.
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β
Richard Rohr (Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life)
β
Church practice has been more influenced by Plato than by Jesus. We invariably prefer the universal synthesis, the answer that settles all the dust and resolves every question even when it is not entirely true over the mercy and grace of God.
β
β
Richard Rohr (Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life)
β
Life is all about practicing for heaven." p 101.
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β
Richard Rohr (Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life)
β
Those who are not true leaders will just affirm people at their own immature level.
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Richard Rohr (Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life)
β
We fly, but we have not 'conquered' the air. Nature presides in all her dignity, permitting us the study and the use of such of her forces as we may understand. It is when we presume to intimacy, having been granted only tolerance, that the harsh stick fall across our impudent knuckles and we rub the pain, staring upward, startled by our ignorance.
β
β
Beryl Markham (West with the Night)
β
You love me.β
He kept gazing upward, his answer coming softly. βYeah. I do.
β
β
Toni Blake (Whisper Falls (Destiny, #3))
β
If you accept a punitive notion of God, who punishes or even eternally tortures those who do not love him, then you have an absurd universe where most people on this earth end up being more loving than God!
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Richard Rohr (Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life)
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Whatever good, true, or perfect things we can say about humanity or creation, we can say of God exponentially. God is the beauty of creation and humanity multiplied to the infinite power.
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Richard Rohr (Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life)
β
What some now call 'emerging Christianity' or 'the emerging church' is not something you join, establish, or invent. You just name it and then you see it everywhere- already in place! Such nongroup groups, the 'two or three' gathered in deep truth, create a whole new level of affiliation, dialogue, and friendship...
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Richard Rohr (Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life)
β
As Desmond Tutu told me on a recent trip to Cape Town, βWe are only the light bulbs, Richard, and our job is just to remain screwed in!
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Richard Rohr (Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life)
β
If we seek spiritual heroism ourselves, the old ego is just back in control under a new name. There would not really be any change at all, but only disguise, just bogus self-improvement on our own terms.
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Richard Rohr (Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life)
β
In the second half of life, we do not have strong and final opinions about everything, every event, or most people, as much as we allow things and people to delight us, sadden us, and truly influence us.
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Richard Rohr (Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life)
β
Heβs leaving, and he picks up his shoulder bag on the way out and heβs staring at the ceiling, then the sky, and he closes the door silently behind him, and he stares upward because the minute he looks down, the tears will fall.
And he wonβt cry over Harry Styles.
So Louis doesnβt look down.
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β
Velvetoscar (Young & Beautiful)
β
It has been acceptable for some time in America to remain "wound identified" (that is, using one's victimhood as one's identity, one's ticket to sympathy, and one's excuse for not serving), instead of using the wound to "redeem the world," as we see in Jesus and many people who turn their wounds into sacred wounds that liberate both themselves and others.
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Richard Rohr (Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life)
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a person must pass the lessons learned on to othersβor there has been no real gift at all.
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Richard Rohr (Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life)
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You ironically have to have a very strong ego structure to let go of your ego. You need to struggle with the rules more than a bit before you throw them out. You only internalize values by butting up against external values for a while.
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Richard Rohr (Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life)
β
Love Forever
If I were the trees ...
I would turn my leaves to gold and scatter them toward the sky so they would circle about your head and fall in piles at your feet...
so you might know wonder.
If I were the mountains ...
I would crumble down and lift you up so you could see all of my secret places, where the rivers flow and the animals run wild ...
so you might know freedom.
If I were the ocean ...
I would raise you onto my gentle waves and carry you across the seas to swim with the whales and the dolphins in the moonlit waters,
so you might know peace.
If I were the stars ...
I would sparkle like never before and fall from the sky as gentle rain,
so that you would always look towards heaven and know that you can reach the stars.
If I were the moon ...
I would scoop you up and sail you through the sky and show you the Earth below in all its wonder and beauty,
so you might know that all the Earth is at your command.
If I were the sun ...
I would warm and glow like never before and light the sky with orange and pink,
so you would gaze upward and always know the glory of heaven.
But I am me ...
and since I am the one who loves you, I will wrap you in my arms and kiss you and love you with all of my heart,
and this I will do until ...
the mountains crumble down ...
and the oceans dry up ...
and the stars fall from the sky ...
and the sun and moon burn out ...
And that is forever.
β
β
Camron Wright (The Rent Collector)
β
At the edge you will always remember me, at the edge you will last be remembered, where sanity and insanity come together, for the time, then separates. Like leaves on October trees, that color the world, but for a moment, then leave. At the edge, where life losses its edginess, and thoughts we will become one, someday. At the edge the sun drops, the ring falls, and senses of raindrops climb upwards to the gray sky.
β
β
Anthony Liccione
β
Iβm here,β I told him, picking at the taxi company decal on
the interior of the car window.βMy face is relaxed and content. My lips are curved upward.β
Sam did not laugh, because he was immune to my charms.
βHave you been to the place youβre staying yet? Is it okay?β
βIβm fine, Mother,β I replied. βI havenβt been yet. Iβm going
to go see Baby now.
β
β
Maggie Stiefvater (Sinner (The Wolves of Mercy Falls, #4))
β
Vhalla blushed and averted her eyes from his handsome face. βItβs still a poor choice,β she whispered. βIt always will be.β Aldrik stood. Her breath quickened by his proximity alone. He hooked his fingers under her chin and pulled her face upward gently. βIf you want to make the widely accepted appropriate decision, then leave now, have mercy and end this before you entice me further. Because I promise, this will never be easyβfor either of usβand I refuse to love you halfway.
β
β
Elise Kova (Fire Falling (Air Awakens, #2))
β
Some people are born with a vital and responsive energy. It not only enables them to keep abreast of the times; it qualifies them to furnish in their own personality a good bit of the motive power to the mad pace. They are fortunate beings. They do not need to apprehend the significance of things. They do not grow weary nor miss step, nor do they fall out of rank and sink by the wayside to be left contemplating the moving procession.
Ah! that moving procession that has left me by the road-side! Its fantastic colors are more brilliant and beautiful than the sun on the undulating waters. What matter if souls and bodies are failing beneath the feet of the ever-pressing multitude! It moves with the majestic rhythm of the spheres. Its discordant clashes sweep upward in one harmonious tone that blends with the music of other worlds--to complete God's orchestra.
It is greater than the stars--that moving procession of human energy; greater than the palpitating earth and the things growing thereon. Oh! I could weep at being left by the wayside; left with the grass and the clouds and a few dumb animals. True, I feel at home in the society of these symbols of life's immutability. In the procession I should feel the crushing feet, the clashing discords, the ruthless hands and stifling breath. I could not hear the rhythm of the march.
Salve! ye dumb hearts. Let us be still and wait by the roadside.
β
β
Kate Chopin (The Awakening)
β
You never answered," he said. "You got the hots for me, or not?" His dark eyes lit up with a smile.
Squaring her shoulders, Holiday started talking. "Della assumed I might have the hots for you. And you know what they say about assuming, right?"
βIt makes an ass out of you and me," Della answered, and gave Kylie the elbow. "Get it. A.S.S.U.M.E."
Holiday cut her eyes to Della in visual reprimand, then started walking away. She got three steps and swung back around. "Are you coming?" she snapped at Burnett.
"You didn't ask me to," He answered.
"Well, I assumed you would know I needed to discuss what happened."
He arched one dark brow upward. "And what did you just about assuming?
β
β
C.C. Hunter (Awake at Dawn (Shadow Falls, #2))
β
So, Violet." Zane turns his chair in my direction. "Is your day getting better yet?"
"Pretty sure it's getting worse as we speak," I say.
-
Zane's dark eyes are sparkling with humor. "Come on," he says. "It's not that bad, is it?"
"Oh, let's see." I stare up at the fancy glass ball lamps hanging from the ceiling. "I got dumped at Taco Bill's today; fell down, split my pants, and generally humiliated myself in front of a complete stranger; went to dinner at a snooty restaurant, found out said stranger is my future step brother; got called a stripper, hooker, and virgin by my mother...did I leave anything out?"
"Well, I don't know. The night is still young β anything could happen." The corners of his beautiful mouth twitch upwards. "It can only get better, right?"
I frown. "Don't say that, you'll jinx me. Now my mom will come back and blurt out how she and Bill had kinky bathroom sex, and I'll run away before she can go into detail, and trip over that waiter carrying that flaming dessert - he'll go crashing into the lady with way too much product in her hair, and then the whole restaurant will be on fire.
β
β
Nicole Christie (Falling for the Ghost of You)
β
To Juan at the Winter Solstice
There is one story and one story only
That will prove worth your telling,
Whether as learned bard or gifted child;
To it all lines or lesser gauds belong
That startle with their shining
Such common stories as they stray into.
Is it of trees you tell, their months and virtues,
Or strange beasts that beset you,
Of birds that croak at you the Triple will?
Or of the Zodiac and how slow it turns
Below the Boreal Crown,
Prison to all true kings that ever reigned?
Water to water, ark again to ark,
From woman back to woman:
So each new victim treads unfalteringly
The never altered circuit of his fate,
Bringing twelve peers as witness
Both to his starry rise and starry fall.
Or is it of the Virgin's silver beauty,
All fish below the thighs?
She in her left hand bears a leafy quince;
When, with her right hand she crooks a finger, smiling,
How many the King hold back?
Royally then he barters life for love.
Or of the undying snake from chaos hatched,
Whose coils contain the ocean,
Into whose chops with naked sword he springs,
Then in black water, tangled by the reeds,
Battles three days and nights,
To be spewed up beside her scalloped shore?
Much snow if falling, winds roar hollowly,
The owl hoots from the elder,
Fear in your heart cries to the loving-cup:
Sorrow to sorrow as the sparks fly upward.
The log groans and confesses:
There is one story and one story only.
Dwell on her graciousness, dwell on her smiling,
Do not forget what flowers
The great boar trampled down in ivy time.
Her brow was creamy as the crested wave,
Her sea-blue eyes were wild
But nothing promised that is not performed.
β
β
Robert Graves