by John O’Donohue
One of my favourite teachers, John O’Donohue was an Irish priest, poet, philosopher who wrote a number of international bestsellers. These included Divine Beauty, Anam Cara, Eternal Echoes and Benedictus.
Each one of us is alone in the world.
It takes great courage to meet the full force of your aloneness. Most of the activity in society is subconsciously designed to quell the voice crying in the wilderness within you.
The mystic, Thomas a Kempis said that when you go out into the world, you return having lost some of yourself.
Until you learn to inhabit your aloneness the lonely distraction and noise of society will seduce you into false belonging, with which which you will only become empty and weary.
When you face your aloneness, something begins to happen. Gradually your sense of bleakness changes into a sense of true belonging.
This is a slow and open-ended transition but it is utterly vital in order to come into rythm with your own individuality . In a sense this is task of finding your true home within your life. It is not narcissistic, for as soon as you rest in the house of your own heart, doors and windows begin to open outwards to the world.”
Integral Elders 