{"id":5348,"date":"2023-12-12T09:24:50","date_gmt":"2023-12-12T13:24:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/poet-and-philosopher-john-odonohue-on-the-light-within-us-and-between-us-the-marginalian\/"},"modified":"2023-12-12T09:24:50","modified_gmt":"2023-12-12T13:24:50","slug":"poet-and-philosopher-john-odonohue-on-the-light-within-us-and-between-us-the-marginalian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/poet-and-philosopher-john-odonohue-on-the-light-within-us-and-between-us-the-marginalian\/","title":{"rendered":"Poet and Philosopher John O\u2019Donohue on the Light Within Us and Between Us \u2013 The Marginalian"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Profit<\/a>
\n<\/p>\n

\n

\"How<\/a><\/p>\n

Every once in the bluest moon, if you are lucky, you encounter someone with such powerful and generous light in their eyes that they rekindle the lost light within you and return it magnified; someone whose calm, kind, steady gaze penetrates the very center of your being and, refusing to look away from even the most shadowy parts of you, falls upon you like a benediction. <\/p>\n

That we can do this for each other, but that it happens so rarely, is both the great miracle and the great tragedy, for there is no loneliness like the loneliness of having your light unmet.<\/p>\n

The great Irish poet and philosopher John O\u2019Donohue<\/a> (January 1, 1956\u2013January 4, 2008) takes up these immense and intimate questions in the opening pages of his altogether wonderful final book To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings<\/em><\/strong><\/a> (public library<\/em><\/a>) \u2014 his parting gift to the world, published just before his untimely death, celebrating \u201cthe gift that a blessing can be, the doors it can open, the healing and transfiguration it can bring\u201d and inviting us to \u201crediscover our power to bless one another.\u201d <\/p>\n

<\/a>
Art by Coralie Bickford Smith from The Fox and the Star<\/em><\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

He writes:<\/p>\n

\n

There is a quiet light that shines in every heart. It draws no attention to itself, though it is always secretly there. It is what illuminates our minds to see beauty, our desire to seek possibility, and our hearts to love life. Without this subtle quickening our days would be empty and wearisome, and no horizon would ever awaken our longing. Our passion for life is quietly sustained from somewhere in us that is wedded to the energy and excitement of life. This shy inner light is what enables us to recognize and receive our very presence here as blessing.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The even greater blessing is our presence here together, as mirrors and magnifiers of each other\u2019s light. \u201cWhenever you give a blessing, a blessing returns to enfold you,\u201d O\u2019Donohue reminds us. At their best, at their rarest, those moments of profound light-to-light connection are thresholds, portals to transformation, invitations to a more radiant life. <\/p>\n

With an eye to \u201cthat tenuous territory of change that we must traverse when a threshold invites us,\u201d O\u2019Donohue writes:<\/p>\n

\n

Without warning, thresholds can open directly before our feet\u2026 In the ecstasy and loneliness of one\u2019s life, there are certain times when blessing is nearer to us.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\"\"
Figure study for The Spirit of Light<\/em>, Edwin Austin Abbey, 1989.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

To step across the threshold with courage and openheartedness is to honor the truth and sanctity of our experience, of our light \u2014 it is to bless ourselves:<\/p>\n

\n

The structures of our experience are the windows into the divine. When we are true to the call of experience, we are true to God.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Complement with a blind hero of the French resistance on how to live in light<\/a>, a Baldwin-lensed meditation on the light between us<\/a>, and David Whyte\u2019s \u201cBlessing for the Light,\u201d<\/a> inspired by John O\u2019Donohue, then revisit O\u2019Donohue on why we fall in love<\/a> and the essence of friendship<\/a>. <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Profit<\/a>
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Every once in the bluest moon, if you are lucky, you encounter someone with such powerful and generous light in their eyes that they rekindle […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5349,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-purpose"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5348"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5348\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}