“…there are at least two major tasks to human life. The first task is to build a strong ‘container’ or identity; the second is to find the contents that the container was meant to hold.” (Richard Rohr, Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life, p.xiii)
I image my life in the form of a basket. This basket exhibits the goals of my life: identity, accomplishments, status, and separateness from others. For many decades I’ve woven my actions and beliefs into it. The base is my birth potential (intelligence, coloring, athletic ability, etc.). The sides, made up of staves, represent the influences in my life (parents and relatives, education, religion or culture, hobbies, jobs, mates, and environment). In and out, around the staves, I wove my choices. Over time these staves have become twisted, bent, broken, squeezed, or pushed out of alignment. The pattern of my basket is irregular.
That weaving now nears the top. As I gaze at my basket, I realize it is empty. How will I fill it? My stomach clutches. The center has nothing to hold on to. I will no longer have the support of the staves. Will I adventure into this openness or cling to the staves, leaving the center empty until I die? Working on the weaving and repairing the staves would be much easier than free floating in the emptiness. Despair announces its presence in thoughts of death. Where was my life going? I have a home. My career is over; I’m retired. I’m finished?
Reading Rohr’s book, I realize my life isn’t over. Though frightening, I am releasing my grip on basket sides, one finger at a time and venturing into open space, where the second half of my life begins. There I’ll find true spirituality.
