For a number of us the late poet and philosopher-theologian, John O’Donohue, has articulated for us when we seek words. He crafts a vessel that has carried, or, is carrying, some of us across the waves of grief to safe shores. The words are a companion in loneliness and a gentle sound to punctuate silence. I’ve written of him before in That Worthy Wordsmith is Our Anam Cara.
This is but a taste of his words once more, praising our wonder in creation and landscape from Anam Cara:
“LANDSCAPE IS THE FIRST-BORN OF creation. It was here hundreds of millions of years before the flowers, the animals or the people appeared. Landscape was here on its own. It is the most ancient presence in the world though it needs a human presence to acknowledge it.”
— Anam Cara: 25th Anniversary Edition by John O’Donohue
https://amzn.asia/7GZHREa
He sends us to our search for discovery in Eternal Echoes:
“IDEALLY, A HUMAN LIFE SHOULD BE A constant pilgrimage of discovery. The most exciting discoveries happen at the frontiers. When you come to know something new, you come closer to yourself and to the world. Discovery enlarges and refines your sensibility. When you discover something, you transfigure some of the forsakenness of the world. Nature comes to know itself anew in your discoveries. Creative human thought adds to the brightness of the world. Yet there is a strong seam of thought which has always de-animated nature and reduced the earth to a mere playground for the worst fantasies of human greed.”
— Eternal Echoes: Exploring Our Hunger To Belong by John O’Donohue
https://amzn.asia/7bbpPbJ
He has words for us when we are spent and drag our feet to the end of the day in ” For One Who is Exhausted” from Benedictus:
He goes on to advise us…
This but a morsel of the banquet O’Donohue offers. As he says in his poem “Beannacht”, may his words…
come to awaken in you
a meadow of delight.
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