Anam Cara

I have started to read a work called Anam Cara, a work on Celtic wisdom and spirituality written by John O’Donohue. The title translates as "soul friend" from Gaelic and so suggests the importance of connections that are more complex and intertwined than the usual “hello, how are you.” I had not even read a full page when I found myself deeply hooked. His gift of language captivated immediately. Let me share a few words from the first paragraph of the prologue.

“The mystery never leaves you alone. Behind your image, below your words, above your thoughts, the silence of another world waits. A world lives within you. No one else can bring news of the inner world. Through the opening of the mouth, we bring out sounds from the mountains beneath the soul. These sounds are words. The world is full of words.”

Of course I am about as Irish as Big Ben and the Thames River but there must be something Celtic in my background because I surely relate to Celtic spirituality.