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 As I hunted around in the kitchen for my glasses this morning, it dawned on me that it is an unfortunate coincidence in life, that at the same time we start to need glasses, we become forgetful! This reminds of something that John O’Donohue said when I heard him speak at Greenbelt in 2007. Quoting the American comedian Steven Wright: “The combination of amnesia and déjà vu is.. I think I’ve forgotten this before”.
When I listened to John O’Donohue, I was mesmerised. I can hear his soft Irish voice: “I would love to live as a river flows, carried by the surprise of it’s own unfolding”.
He encouraged a life lived on the threshold of discovery, attendance to our gifts and celebration: “When you celebrate, you are taking time to recognise, to open your eyes and behold in your life the quiet miracles and gifts that seek no attention; yet each day they nourish, shelter and animate your life.” He talked of “the integrity of individual identity” and our ontological duty to “be who you are”; “to live to the full the life you love.” John took words and turned them into music. He writes: “A book is barely an object, it is a tender presence fashioned from words, the secret echoes of the mind.” I can think of no better description of John’s writing. John writes of the isolation and loneliness of our consumerist culture and teaches us the meaning of Belonging: “Belonging is deep; only in a superficial sense does it refer to our external attachment to people, places and things. It is the living and passionate presence of the soul.” And so, there are outer forms of belonging and there is Self-Belonging. This is Belonging’s most intimate form. “A true sense of belonging should allow us to become free and creative, and inhabit the silent depth within us.” John writes of the “voice of eternal longing” within us all. He reassures us that this feeling of unease is natural and that befriending this longing will intensify our one journey on the earth. It is the source of all our creativity and imagination. In John’s teaching, I have discovered a way to be in relationship with God, myself and the world which feels authentic. For someone whose faith has never sat comfortably with conventional religious structures, it has offered me a place of sheltered Belonging.
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