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torydoughty's review against another edition
3.0
This was my first O'Donohue, and I think it shouldn't have been. This seems to be a compilation of some of his other work, and it's not as cohesive as I anticipated. I definitely plan to read some of his other works, and there were some truly beautiful moments in this collection, but I wouldn't recommend starting here if you're reading O'Donohue for the first time.
maddyb001's review against another edition
3.0
one star - This ended up being all theological essays, not poetry, written by a variety of people and it was unclear if this was actually written by the author or in a eulogy for him.
four stars - beautiful writing and concepts in some of the chapters others dragged
Averaged to three stars I guess??
four stars - beautiful writing and concepts in some of the chapters others dragged
Averaged to three stars I guess??
brookebookshelf's review against another edition
4.0
This book was due before I could finish it, but I enjoyed my time in his beautiful vision of the world while I had it.
dietsmarrissjohnson's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
4.5
amyofdoom's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
4.25
10_4tina's review against another edition
challenging
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
4.25
Beautiful
These compiled reflections are thoughtful, wise, and wordsmithed in such a way that the turns of phrase stick in my brain long after reading. So many of his words resonated deeply with seasons of trial I've drudged through for years now and there's something healing about beautiful words on mundane or ugly topics like loss and transience.
Here are the words I most want to remember:
On Transience:
Theresa of Albina - In bad, lonesome, difficult times, you should never forget that this too will actually pass, so there is a shelter and a kindness in that acknowledgement of transience. But there is also a desperate loneliness in transience, in knowing that, one that you love, the beautiful time that you are having, the lovely things that are happening to you will all actually disappear.
On Memory:
It's sad that people don't use their good memories and revist again and again the harvest of memory that is within them. And live out of the riches of that harvest rather than out of the poverty of their woundedness.
On Shelter:
Truth and Method - a horizon is something toward which we move, but it is also something that moves with us...we are always moving to a new horizon, not abandoning the former ones, but in the graciousness of memories' loyalty, actually brining them along with you...Wonder is the sister of novelty, newness, and freshness
On Imagination:
The kind of knowing that is in imagination is knowing through exploration - not predetermined concepts or ideas
Facts are retarded possibilities - pssiibilities actualized
On Wildness:
One of the reasons the postmodern life is so packed is that we have lost touch with our wildness. One of the most natural ways of coming home to your wildness is to go out into a wild place.
On Absence and Loss:
Absence is the sister of presence. The opposite of presence is not absence, but vacancy. Vacancy is a neutral indifferent - a blank kind of space...Absence has vitality in it and it is infused with longing...roots of word absence - Ab Esse (to be elsewhere)...to be away from a person or place...all absence holds the echo of some fractured intimacy, but the intimacy came first, and then, when it was broken, the absence filled the heart.
Midhir and Itamn:
As the world gets older, it becomes more full with these invisible ruins of vanished presence - Emily Dickinson: "Absence disembodies, so does death, hiding individuals from the earth."
We are so vulnerable to absence because we desire presence so deeply.
On Welcomin Absence:
(when someone recognizes you in a grocery store?)...When someone you haven't seen in ten years appears at the door, don't start singing him all your new songs. You will never catch up. Walk around, feeling like a leaf. Know that you could umble at any second, then decide what to do with your time.
On Prayers of the Faithful:
May I have the courage today to live the life that I would love, to postpone my dream no longer, but do at last what I came here for, and waste my heart on fear no more.
On Temperament, Not Time:
They never manage to get old at all. For some strange reason, the passionate heart never ages and if you keep your eros and your passion alive, then in some subtle, inevitable way, you are already in the eternal world
These compiled reflections are thoughtful, wise, and wordsmithed in such a way that the turns of phrase stick in my brain long after reading. So many of his words resonated deeply with seasons of trial I've drudged through for years now and there's something healing about beautiful words on mundane or ugly topics like loss and transience.
Here are the words I most want to remember:
On Transience:
Theresa of Albina - In bad, lonesome, difficult times, you should never forget that this too will actually pass, so there is a shelter and a kindness in that acknowledgement of transience. But there is also a desperate loneliness in transience, in knowing that, one that you love, the beautiful time that you are having, the lovely things that are happening to you will all actually disappear.
On Memory:
It's sad that people don't use their good memories and revist again and again the harvest of memory that is within them. And live out of the riches of that harvest rather than out of the poverty of their woundedness.
On Shelter:
Truth and Method - a horizon is something toward which we move, but it is also something that moves with us...we are always moving to a new horizon, not abandoning the former ones, but in the graciousness of memories' loyalty, actually brining them along with you...Wonder is the sister of novelty, newness, and freshness
On Imagination:
The kind of knowing that is in imagination is knowing through exploration - not predetermined concepts or ideas
Facts are retarded possibilities - pssiibilities actualized
On Wildness:
One of the reasons the postmodern life is so packed is that we have lost touch with our wildness. One of the most natural ways of coming home to your wildness is to go out into a wild place.
On Absence and Loss:
Absence is the sister of presence. The opposite of presence is not absence, but vacancy. Vacancy is a neutral indifferent - a blank kind of space...Absence has vitality in it and it is infused with longing...roots of word absence - Ab Esse (to be elsewhere)...to be away from a person or place...all absence holds the echo of some fractured intimacy, but the intimacy came first, and then, when it was broken, the absence filled the heart.
Midhir and Itamn:
As the world gets older, it becomes more full with these invisible ruins of vanished presence - Emily Dickinson: "Absence disembodies, so does death, hiding individuals from the earth."
We are so vulnerable to absence because we desire presence so deeply.
On Welcomin Absence:
(when someone recognizes you in a grocery store?)...When someone you haven't seen in ten years appears at the door, don't start singing him all your new songs. You will never catch up. Walk around, feeling like a leaf. Know that you could umble at any second, then decide what to do with your time.
On Prayers of the Faithful:
May I have the courage today to live the life that I would love, to postpone my dream no longer, but do at last what I came here for, and waste my heart on fear no more.
On Temperament, Not Time:
They never manage to get old at all. For some strange reason, the passionate heart never ages and if you keep your eros and your passion alive, then in some subtle, inevitable way, you are already in the eternal world
laurakisthardt's review against another edition
5.0
Wow. What an incredible book. I loved listening to John O'Donoghue's brother read the audiobook. There were so many lovely poems and prayers sprinkled throughout. I will be buying a hardcopy to keep.
z_dubya's review
4.0
3.5 stars. Some concepts didn’t land for me, but overall a great place to get a feel for the author. I’ll be consuming more of his work in the future.