The human soul is hungry for beauty;
we seek it everywhere
— in landscape, music, art, clothes,
furniture, gardening, companionship,
love, religion, and in ourselves.
When we experience the Beautiful,
there is a wonderful sense of homecoming;
we feel fully alive.
Our lives become illuminated
and we come to glimpse behind the shudder of appearances,
the sure form of things.
Beauty is the true priestess of individuation.
But our times are dominated by anxiety
and by what is vulgar, coarse, and artificial.
Were Beauty to awaken in the fields of politics,
religion, planning, discourse,
and seeing,
our world would heal
and fresh wells of hope would refresh us.
by John O’Donohue,
Beauty: The Invisible Embrace
Recommended Books
Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom, by John O'Donohue
Beauty: The Invisible Embrace, by John O'Donohue
Conamara Blues, by John O'Donohue
Divine Beauty: The Invisible Embrace, by John O'Donohue
Echoes of Memory, by John O'Donohue
