Wednesday, September 3, 2014

New Beginnings

Years ago I had the honor to meet John O'Donohue speaking at a church across from American University. I will never forgot how I ask a question to him in a very non ordinary way. I said that dying was easy but I found living was quite difficult. He responded with great kindness and blessed me with with some friendly words.

John O'Donohue wrote before he died "The Blessed Space Between Us" in 2008 these paragraphs below,

To live in the creative life, we always need a critical look at where we presently are, attempting always to discern where we have become stagnant and where new beginnings might be ripening. There can be no growth if we do not remain open and vulnerable to what is new and different. I have never seen anyone take a risk for growth that was not rewarded a thousand times over.

There is a certain innocence about beginning, with its excitement and promise of something new. But this will emerge only through undertaking some voyage into the unknown. And no one can foretell what the unknown might yield. There are journeys we have brought inner riches and refinement; but to travel through dark valleys of difficulty and suffering. Had we known at the beginnings what the journey would demand of us, we might never set out. Yet the gifts and rewards become vital to who we are..

When the heart is ready for a fresh beginnings, unforeseen things can emerge. And in a sense, this what a beginnings does. It is an opening for surprises. Surrounding the intention and the act of beginning, there always exciting new possibilities...*

Also he wrote in the last paragraph of his poem, New Beginnings

Awaken your spirit to adventure;
Hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk;
Soon you will be home in new rhythm,
For your soul senses the world that awaits you.


Further in this book Mr. O'Donohue wrote the shape of the human heart  blends together both a circle and a triangle. He observed the heart space as a triad where the self and its otherness unites into a threefold force-the spirit of friendship. This fellowship becomes greater then the sum of the other two dimensions. May we all benefit from John's wisdom and begin once again with the blessing of a new friendly possibility.


*John O'Donohue- The Blessed Space Between Us, 2008, pg, 2-3

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