“You are joined in an ancient and eternal union with humanity that cuts across all barriers of time, convention, philosophy and definition. When you are blessed with Anam Cara, the Irish believe, you have arrived at that most sacred place: home.” ~ John O’ Donohue

The poet Theodore Roethke wrote that “In a dark time, the eye begins to see.”

Cultivating the ‘inner garden‘, Anam Cara relationship, and some connection to beauty — rather than the ensorcelment of glamour — can also be sustaining.

The late poet-priest, John O’Donohue also said, in a very rich and inspiring conversation with Krista Tippett (OnBeing),

“… There are individuals holding out on frontlines, holding the humane tissue alive in areas of ultimate barbarity, where things are visible that the human eye should never see.”

“And they are able to sustain it, because there is in them some kind of sense of beauty that knows the horizon that we are really called to in some way. I love Pascal’s phrase, that you should always “keep something beautiful in your mind.”

“I have often found — like in times when it’s been really difficult for me — that if you can keep some kind of little contour that you can glimpse sideways at now and again, you can endure great bleakness.”

Old growth coastal forest. Image courtesy Public Domain Images.

O’Donohue speaks of shifting the way we look at time, and mused that, “… the greatest question isn’t “What should I do,” but “How should I be?”

For the full OnBeing conversation — worthwhile and inspiring — you’ll find it here.

For a related Sophia’s Children musings:

Big Love,

Jamie