New Blog 1: John O Donohue

Wednesday 24 October 2012

John O Donohue

(Green Hat)The Celts were a nature people, and the Celtic people had a deep sense of the circular nature of our life journey. Friendship, once awakened, completes the circle of the self. John writes “In Celtic tradition the anam cara was not merely a metaphor or ideal. When your affection is kindled, the world of the intellect takes on a new tenderness. You look and see and understand differently” p38 . John comments that “most fundamentalism, greed, violence and oppression can be traced back to the separation of idea and affection.” So the Celtic way of connecting idea and affection is to offer good thoughts which will, in true cyclic form, come back – the more given away is the more received. John comments that our words are our art “bringing sound out of silence”and our way of connecting to our friends. His own poem to his friend “Josie”makes this gift of words and ends with:“may a slow wind work these words of love around you,an invisible cloak to mind your life”.