Remembering John O'Donohue

[Anna Billings]

One year ago, the sad news of a great teacher’s departure resounded around the world. John O’Donohue — author of Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom; Eternal Echoes: Exploring Our Yearning to Belong; Beauty: The Invisible Embrace; To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings; and two books of poetry: Echoes of Memory (out of print), and Canamara Blues — died in his sleep in the timeless hours of the night, January 3, 2008, two days after his 52nd birthday.

Though his inspiration lives on through his written and spoken words, there’s a profound sadness that lingers, weaving itself around a deepening gratitude for his life here with us.

Here is his most famous and beloved blessing — Beannacht. He wrote it for his mother. In his most recent book, published after his death, To Bless the Space Between Us, he posted it as his New Year's Blessing. This is so befitting since both his birthday and death-day fall at the beginning of a New Year. It is one of his greatest gifts to us and was perhaps his most favorite blessing, printed in at least three of his books as well as on his website and recited at nearly every lecture/workshop since it's creation.


Bennacht — A Blessing — by John O’Donohue

On the day when
The weight deadens
On your shoulders
And you stumble,
May the clay dance
To balance you.

And when your eyes
Freeze behind
The gray window
And the ghost of loss
Gets in to you,
May a flock of colors,
Indigo, red, green
And azure blue
Come to awaken in you
A meadow of delight.

When the canvas frays
In the curach of thought
And a stain of ocean
Blackens beneath you,
May there come across the waters
A path of yellow moonlight
To bring you safely home.

May the nourishment of the earth be yours,
May the clarity of light be yours,
May the fluency of the ocean be yours,
And may the protection of the ancestors be yours.

And so may a slow
Wind work these words
Of love around you,
An invisible cloak
To mind your life.

From Anam Cara by John O’Donohue
Also printed in To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings by same author
And in Echoes of Memory (a book of poetry) also by same author

[Anna Billings]

Beautiful! Thanks, Mike. David Whyte (another teacher we both admire and a soul friend to John O'Donohue) talks about how we humans are peculiar to other life forms in that we have this strange capacity to NOT be present (as well as present, of course), that we can be "elsewhere other than where we are." Thus the practice of presence is particularly relevant for us. I tend to think that this is an accompaniment to and facilitator of our capacity and destiny to become self-aware, life-aware — to be present and conscious of being present — our amazing potential to grow through evolution of consciousness. :-)

[Mike]

For Presence

Awaken to the mystery of being here
and enter the quiet immensity of your own presence.

Have joy and peace in the temple of your senses.

Receive encouragement when new frontiers beckon.

Respond to the call of your gift and the courage to
follow its path.

Let the flame of anger free you of all falsity.

May warmth of heart keep your presence aflame.

May anxiety never linger about you.

May your outer dignity mirror an inner dignity of
soul.

Take time to celebrate the quiet miracles that seek
no attention.

Be consoled in the secret symmetry of your soul.

May you experience each day as a sacred gift woven
around the heart of wonder.

~ John O'Donohue ~


(To Bless the Space Between Us)

[Anna Billings]

And here is a link to a 53 minute interview with John O'Donohue entitled, The Inner Landscape of Beauty, from Krista Tippett's Speaking of Faith program on American Public Media. It can be downloaded as mp3 or as a podcast or listened to directly on the website.

[Anna Billings]

And here is another beautiful tribute posted by someone ("Suze") on You Tube.

[Anna Billings]

Here is a beautiful slide show with John O'Donohue reciting his Beannacht blessing. I heard recently that the word actually means "the journey."


Poem: "Beannacht" from Speaking of Faith on Vimeo.

[Skip Zilla]

It's great that you're remembering your friend John O’Donohue in this way. I wish I had known him.

[Ian Carmichael]

Thanks so much Anna. Some blessings, such as this one 'weave a silence' on the mind, heart, spirit. (To borrow a phrase from David Adam). The O'Donohue I've encountered, I've loved.
I must move to take down Echoes and pay it the respect of my time.