Thread by @GregoryHStrong

God's peace and blessings friends. Welcome to #SlateReads. We're a group within the @TheSlateProject that gathers Wednesdays at 9 pm ET. Thanks for being here.

#SlateReads is a Twitter hashtag book club where faith and a selected book meet in an explosion of awesome conversation. You DO NOT have to have read the material to participate. You can follow the conversation using tweetchat, twubs, or tweetdeck, to enhance your experience.

Tonight we’re finishing #FallingUpward by @RichardRohrOFM . We’re looking at Ch. 12 & Ch. 13 plus the Coda. I’m using the Companion Journal. It is a wonderful Journal that can stand alone or with the book. #SlateReads

We don’t automatically agree with everything we read. #SlateReads is a safe space for critiques & challenges. We do not shame or blame each other here. We respect each other's experiences and hold space for each other's truths. It is totally acceptable to follow along silently.

#SlateReads welcomes people of all faiths, no faith, and those who negotiate in and between all of the above. You'll see that each post uses the hashtag #SlateReads. We encourage you to include it in your responses, comments, and questions. 1/2

It keeps the #SlateReads conversation together and affords everyone the ability to follow along in real time, and during the coming weeks ahead. And don't worry if you forget. #SlateReads is a dynamic conversation, always changing and evolving. So, here we go! 2/2

Let’s begin with an Opening Prayer #SlateReads

Be still and know that I am God.
Be still and know that I am.
Be still and know.
Be still.
Be.
Amen.
By. Fr. Richard and from The Work of the People
theworkofthepeople.com/be-still #SlateReads

Alright, let's begin with some introductions! What name do you prefer, where you are if it’s safe to do so, the pronouns you use, and the name of your 1st best friend ever. #SlateReads

Questions (Topics) will be prefaced with Q/T1, Q/T2, etc. You can keep your responses or comments organized by prefacing them with A1, A2, and so forth. You can reply or retweet with comment. Your choice! And don’t forget the #SlateReads hashtag! Let us begin…

And now on to #FallingUpward Chapter 12 - New Problems and New Directions #SlateReads

“The bottom line of the Gospel is that most of us have to hit some kind of bottom before we even start the real spiritual journey. Up to that point, it is mostly religion. #SlateReads 1/2

“At the bottom, there is little time or interest in being totally practical, efficient, or revenue generating. You just want to breathe fresh air.” (p. 138) #SlateReads 2/2

Fr. Richard offers this question: “How can I honor the legitimate needs of the first half of life while creating space, vision, time, and grace for the second?” #SlateReads

Q1: How would you respond to this question? #SlateReads

Greg here! He/his. Still in Beacon, NY. Peter James (PJ). He moved from NY to Louisiana. We lost touch. #SlateReads

Q2: How will you begin creating the space, vision, time and grace needed to travel more deeply into the second half of life? #SlateReads

“In the second half of life, all that you avoided for the sake of a manufactured ego ideal starts coming back as a true friend and teacher.” #SlateReads 1/2

“Doers become thinkers, feelers become doers, thinkers become feelers, extroverts become introverts, visionaries become practical, and the practical ones long for vision.” (p. 148-149) #SlateReads 2/2

Q3: As a result of moving toward or into the second half of life, have you felt yourself moving away from groups or friendships? #SlateReads

Q4: What is your reaction to the concept of being happy alone? #SlateReads

Q5: What do you think of the idea that the cure for loneliness is solitude? #SlateReads

“More calm and contemplative seeing does not appear suddenly, but grows almost unconsciously over many years of conflict, confusion, healing, broadening, loving, and forgiving reality.” (p. 146) #SlateReads

“Most people do not see things as they are; rather, they see things as they are. In my experience, this is most of the world, unless people have done their inner work, at least some shadow work, and thereby entered into wisdom or nondualistic thinking.” (p. 148) #SlateReads

Moving onto Chapter 13 - Falling Upward #SlateReads

“What looks like falling can largely be experienced as falling upward and onward, into a broader and deeper world, where the soul has found its fullness, is finally connected to the whole and lives inside the Big Picture.” (p. 153) #SlateReads

Q6: Fr. Richard says that great people come to serve, not to be served. How have you come to serve? #SlateReads

Q7: Does your list of people you serve include people other than your family and friends? #SlateReads

Q8: How can you “give your life away”? #SlateReads

“Like good spiritual directors do, God must say after each failure of ours, “Oh, here is a great opportunity! Let's see how we can work with this!” After our ego-inflating successes, God surely says, “Well, nothing new or good is going to happen here!” (p158) #SlateReads

Q9: What feelings does this statement evoke? #SlateReads

“Like any true mirror, the gaze of God receives us exactly as we are, without judgment or distortion, subtraction or addition. Such perfect receiving is what transforms us.” (p.159) #SlateReads

Q10: Have there been times when you’ve felt this “perfect receiving” from God? #SlateReads

Q10 was the last actual question for the evening, and the rapid journey through this book. Seven hours should be 7 x 70 hours. #SlateReads Don't leave. There's the CODA!

FINAL Thought! THE CODA #SlateReads

Fr. Richard’s spiritual life is inspired heavily by Thomas Merton. He ends #FallingUpward with “When in the Soul of the Serence Disciple” as an example of second half of life thinking. I commend it to you.
cac.org/first-second-h… #SlateReads

We're near the prescribed hour already. Let us close with a Prayer. #SlateReads

Thank you, God, for what you have shown to me today.
Help me to accept with gratitude all you have revealed.
Thank you for all the ways your love is already revealed in and through me.
#SlateReads 1/2

Give me strength and courage to change
what needs to change. Thank you that you have my true heart’s desire in mind—work in me to always believe that so that I can truly love you and love others.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.
#SlateReads 2/2

Thanks to everyone here in real time this evening, and to all future visitors to this conversation we’ve had. Stay tuned! Soon, we begin I’m Still Here - Black Dignity In A World Made for Whiteness by @austinchanning #SlateReads

Peace and blessings friends! Good night!! #SlateReads

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