John O Donohue

Saturday, January 05, 2008

I was in Bloomingdales in Chicago yesterday morning and I picked up an email on my iPhone as Joan shopped.

It was from a stranger wanting to contact my friend Martin quickly about John O Donohue.

I forwarded it to him.

I have just flown home from Chicago and received the message that our friend John O'Donohue has died.

John died yesterday morning.

John was on holiday in France with the family of Kristine, a wonderful woman he met at Greenbelt just last August.

I was there when Kristine and him met.

I snapped a series of pictures and delighted in that first contact with them.

I am shocked.

This is just a short short message as I recover from missing a nights sleep and this massive sad news.

Poet, priest and philosopher, John was a one-off, the warmest, funniest, wisest person you could hope to meet.

His most recent book, 'Benedictus', was published just before Christmas.

It is a book of blessings and this is an extract from one.

'May there be some beautiful surprise

Waiting for you inside death

Something you never knew or felt,

Which with one simple touch

Absolves you of all loneliness and loss,

As you quicken within the embrace

For which your soul was eternally made.

'May your heart be speechless

At the sight of the truth

Of all your belief had hoped,

Your heart breathless

In the light and lightness

Where each and every thing

Is at last its true self

Within that serene belonging

That dwells beside us

On the other side

Of what we see.'

I feel a cheat saying he was a friend.

I guess everyone who met him now calls him 'friend'.

We met a few times

smoked a cigar together

sipped a pint

talked until late.

I drove him around a bit at Greenbelt,

I had his umbrella in my car for two years.

We laughed and shared

although

didn't go and sit with him

when I last had the chance.

I felt I needed to be with those I was with.

If anyone can be my rep

in that eternal place

I would count on him.

My heart is with Kristine who he loved

two way love

working well

cut so so short.

We will remember him

and I will on this day forever.

Quote ::

"May you recognise in your life

the presence, power and light of your soul.

May you realise 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 own individuality and difference.

May you realise that the shape of your soul is unique,

that you have a special destiny here that behind the facade of your life there is something beautiful, good and eternal happening.

May you learn to see your self with the same delight,

pride and expectation with which God sees you in every moment."

John O´Donohue,

writer, philosopher

in his book 'Anam Cara'