I have been dormant for a season.

Overwork, a new puppy, attending to family needs. I have gone quiet.

And in the quiet, I have been pondering this season of life in which I find myself. I turn to Richard Rohr and his book "Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life."

Rohr reminds me that there are tasks for the first half of life, and possible tasks for the second half. I use the word possible here because the truth is that many of us get stuck thinking that the tasks of the first half - building an identity, forming a community or family, seeking a sense of security and a self that works in our climb the ladder, prove yourself culture - are the only tasks we are ever given.

Our culture pressures us to believe first half of life goals are to be our only life goals til we die. We get stuck and it can stunt our souls. We forget were not created solely to work, to strive, to strain.

There is a deeper stream we can step into in the later years of our lives. This step is not mandatory; it is merely a gentle invitation. But an invitation that demands we leave behind those initial goals and dreams and step into what feels like a free fall.

No longer proving ourselves.

No longer living out of the sense of self we built to survive the pressures of the first half of life.

It is about discovering our true self in God and living from that space, from that identity, from that source of affirmation.

As Rohr says, "In the first half of life , success, security, and containment---'looking good' to ourselves and others---are almost the only questions."

We live a sort of "merit badge" kind of life.

In the second half of life - often due to failure or loss or disillusionment - we are invited into a deeper journey where merit badges are the least of our concerns and a truer, deeper, wiser understanding of who we really are and what we are really here on this earth to do begin to become the most important goals of all, if we can even describe them as goals.

My life has been really good by most standards, but I have also experienced my fair share of loss, failure and suffering. And at times, disillusionment. In the midst of these things, I could not see the good in them, but now, looking back, I understand that they are necessary ingredients in this gentle invitation into the work of the second half of life.

Of becoming my true self in God.

Of living from a different source of inspiration than success, achievement or approval.

I am diving into this invitation and I invite you to come with me no matter what stage of life you are in.

The water in this stream is a tad murky now, but the promise of clearer, brighter water awaits.

Photo by Jachan DeVol on Unsplash