the rhythm of life
today, i want to introduce you to one of the most inspirational people in my life– the catholic author, matthew kelly.
*i encourage you to pick up and read/discover the power of self-discovery in one of his books.
for my brother, alex, and for several of my friends- we can never thank him enough for the way he has encouraged us to always strive to become the-best-version-of-ourselves and for the way he has impacted our faith with God. his books are simply remarkable … look for more excerpts and inspiration in my ‘in my faith’ section of my blog!
An excerpt from -The Rhythm of Life- by Matthew Kelly
I grew up in Sydney, Australia, with my brothers: Mark, Simon, Andrew, Brett, Nathan, Bernard, and Hamish. Having seven brothers meant bunk beds, hand-me-down clothes, and never a dull moment. Apart from the fact that I had seven brothers, until I was nineteen I lived what I think could be described as a fairly normal life.
All of a sudden, I began to think about life—and death, greed, fear, love, God, society, suffering, forgiveness, history, and particularly whether or not I was put here for any real purpose. Our lives change when we stop merely replying to questions and begin to ask them. I started asking questions. In no time at all, life started responding to my questions. And as my reflections grew deeper, I noticed that I was beginning to approach everyone and everything in my life differently. I was discovering a sense of the miraculous in the everyday. It was as if I had found some coveted treasure or secret. I felt a fire within me—an intense passion for life and, at the same time, an unshakable peace.
On the outside, little had changed. On the inside, I was developing an exciting new awareness. Later that same year, an opportunity emerged for me to give a talk to a small group of people at a home in Castle Hill, a suburb of Sydney. It wasn’t something that I felt particularly comfortable with, but I had a real desire to share some of the ideas that my soul-searching had given birth to during the preceding months.
Although I was unaware of it at the time, speaking to a handful of people on October 8, 1993, was to become a very significant event. It was one of those events that cause our lives to completely change direction. The following week I found myself giving four talks, the week after that, six—and it was then that life invited me down unimaginable paths. I discovered my gift, and my life changed.
It had all happened so quickly.
On the outside, everything seemed fine. On the inside, I was deeply troubled. I wasn’t a sign of contradiction; I was a walking contradiction. The authentic life I aspired to, and wrote and spoke about so passionately, had been lost somewhere along the way. My life was a complete mess. Nothing was right. Although I was still constantly hopping from continent to continent, I was now based in America. Everything seemed to bother me, and confusion and chaos were the only regular feelings I could express. I felt overwhelmed. Everything important to me was slipping away, and the people I loved were the very people I was disappointing and hurting. I had never felt more alone. I was miserable. I had lost my roots.
My diet was atrocious, I could count on one hand the number of times I had exercised in the past six months, and my sleeping pattern was appalling. Physically I was exhausted. Emotionally I was confused and hurting. Intellectually I had lost my bearings. And spiritually I was as dry as the Sahara desert.
The well was empty.
My lifestyle had caught up with me. I was too young to feel this old. I had fallen victim to my own misplaced priorities. I was forced to admit that the general day-to-day structure of my life was fatally flawed.
I had lost the rhythm of life.