‘When was the last time you read a really great book…?’ writes the former priest, poet and philosopher, John O’Donohue in ‘Anam Cara’. This is that book! One that will ‘sing in my mind for months to come’, as O’Donohue would say of a great conversation.
Firstly, it’s the way he generously interweaves his celebration of Celtic spirituality with carefully chosen quotes from other writers: the beautiful line from a poem by Pablo Neruda ‘I want to do with you what spring does with the cherry trees’. Or Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s reflection on his wife of 30 years: ‘I know her so well now that I’ve not the slightest idea who she really is’.
But it is O’Donohue’s words, so beautifully read by his brother on the Audible version I am listening to, that seem to come so near to the heart of things. For example: ‘A friend is a loved one who wakens your life in order to free the wild possibilities within you’
He died unexpectedly young, so I will never be able to meet him, and yet through his writings you feel he is that kind and wise friend. Appropriately, since the title of the book, ‘Anam Cara’ means ‘Soul Friend’ in Irish.
Let’s meet him here – addressing a group of psychologists – his great gifts on full display.
