John O'Donohue

From the author of the bestselling Anam Cara comes a beautiful collection of blessings to help readers through both the everyday and the extraordinary events of their lives. John O’Donohue, Irish teacher and poet, has been widely praised for his gift of drawing on Celtic spiritual traditions to create words of inspiration and wisdom for today. In To Bless the Space Between Us, his compelling blend of elegant, poetic language and spiritual insight offers readers comfort and encouragement on their journeys through life. O’Donohue looks at life’s thresholds—getting married, having children, starting a new job—and offers invaluable guidelines for making the transition from a known, familiar world into a new, unmapped territory. Most profoundly, however, O’Donohue explains “blessing” as a way of life, as a lens through which the whole world is transformed. O’Donohue awakens readers to timeless truths and shows the power they have to answer contemporary dilemmas and ease us through periods of change.

A Book of Blessings

To Bless the Space Between Us

Laura Mei

I always feel that to live a truly creative life, we need to cast a critical look at where we presently are and always attempt to see what has become stagnant around us, because there can be no growth if we don't continually embrace beginning. I have never seen anyone take a major risk for growth that wasn't rewarded one thousand times over. It must also be said, however, that there is a certain innocence to the act of beginning   ̶ with its excitement and its promise of something new. But this will only emerge through undertaking some voyage into the unknown, and no one can ever foretell what the unknown might yield. There are journeys that we have begun that have brought us great riches and refinement, but we had to go through the dark valley of difficulty and suffering before these riches disclosed themselves. And had we known at the beginning that it would cost us so much, we might never have set out. So I often feel that the innocence of beginning conspires to seduce us into our greater growth. Though your destination is not yet clear, unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning that is at one with your life's desire. Awaken your spirit to adventure. Hold nothing back. Learn to find ease in risk; soon you will be home in a new rhythm, for your soul senses the world that awaits you.

At a human level, to change is one of the great dreams of every heart   ̶ to change the limitations, the sameness, the banality, or the pain. So often, we look back on our patterns of behavior, the kinds of decisions we make repeatedly, and yet, which always fail to serve us well, and we aim for a new and more successful path and way of living. But for humans, change seems to be terribly difficult. Often, we opt to continue the old pattern rather than risk the danger of something different. We're often surprised by change, too, because it seems to arrive out of nowhere, and we find ourselves crossing some new threshold that we had never anticipated. Like spring secretly at work within the heart of winter, below the surface of our lives, huge changes are also in fermentation. Then, when the grip of some long-enduring winter mentality begins to loosen, we find ourselves vulnerable to a flourish of possibility, and suddenly, we're negotiating a new threshold. And at any time, you can ask yourself: At which threshold am I now standing? At this time in my life, what am I leaving and where am I about to enter? What is preventing me from crossing my next threshold? And what gift would enable me to do it? A threshold isn't simply a boundary; it is a frontier that divides two different territories, rhythms, and atmospheres. At this threshold, a great complexity of emotion comes alive: confusion, fear, excitement, sadness, and hope. This is one of the reasons why such vital crossings were always clothed in ritual. It's wise in your own life to be able to recognize and acknowledge the key thresholds, to take your time, to feel all the varieties of presence that accrue there, and to listen inwards with complete attention until you hear the voice calling you forward; namely, that the time has come to cross. To acknowledge and cross a new threshold is always a challenge. It demands courage and also a sense of trust in whatever is emerging.

One of the most precious things in any life is its solitude. I always think that you need only three things for the mystical journey: stillness, silence, and solitude. Because it is in solitude that you inherit your soul, and it is in solitude that the true shape of your individuality can become visible to you. It is in solitude, also, that you can learn to hear your true heart. May you recognize in your life the presence, power, and light of your soul. May you realize that you are never alone, that your soul, in its brightness and belonging, connects you intimately with the rhythm of the universe. May you have respect for your individuality and difference. May you realize that the shape of your soul is unique, that you have a special destiny here, and that behind the facade of your life, there is something beautiful and eternal happening.

To Bless the Space Between Us quotes

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