The Unseen Life That Dreams Us

John O’Donohue On The Secret Landscapes Of Imagination and Spirit

In 1996 my sister Sharon was about to undergo her first brain surgery to remove several tumors. Though we had lost our father five years before, I had never questioned that Sharon would al¬ways be a part of my life. She was my older sister. Now I had to face the unimaginable possibility of being without her.

Sharon and I had been raised Catholic, but had both long ago abandoned the Church and often joked about being “re¬covering Catholics.” Now Sharon’s illness raised questions for me, and on the advice of a friend I attended a retreat led by a former priest: Irish poet and philosopher John O’Donohue.

The retreat was a great help to me, and I was impressed and soothed by O’Donohue’s deep kindness. He had no aura of Catholic guilt — something I had worked hard to get rid of myself. His words and presence left me feeling lighter and freer. I bought his book Anam Cara (Harper Perennial). Anam is the Gaelic word for “soul,” and cara the word for “friend.” In the early Celtic church, an anam cara acted as a teacher, companion, or spiritual guide, someone with whom you could share your innermost thoughts.

In the coming years, as I watched my sister slowly slip away, I turned again and again to O’Donohue’s Anam Cara and his other books. They addressed my grief and also my questions about how to live a meaningful life, how to cultivate wonder, and how to be more gentle with myself. Since my sister’s death, I have attended two more retreats with O’Donohue and have discovered that underneath his gentle and kind manner lies a brilliant mind capable of addressing the most complex ques¬tions of our times.

Click here to read an excerpt: The Sun

Diane Covington: D-Day Anniversary Commentary

Back in my high school and college history classes in the late 1960s as I sat doodling or day dreaming, if anyone had told me that I’d become a journalist and write articles about World War II, I would have told them they were out of their minds.

I thought history was just a bunch of men and wars with no women anywhere, so what was so important? All those facts and dates certainly didn’t impact my life. But there I was wrong.

The seeds of my interest in history were at that moment lying dormant inside of me. They sprang from my dad’s stories about his part in the Normandy invasion and his time in France in 1944. Dad talked about the kindness and gratitude of the French people, for example. There were funny stories, about his efforts to communicate using his high school French. He talked about being a lieutenant in the navy and unloading the huge ships with all the supplies of war.

There was the poignant story about the little French orphan, Gilbert Des Clos who dad had gotten close to and tried to adopt and bring home to America. But one night, when I was about sixteen and clearing the table after dinner, I noticed that his stories were different. Maybe he thought I was old enough to know more of what really happened. I sat back down to listen.

Click here to read the entire story: KPBS

Women Vote

I don’t remember much from history books about American Suffragists, the women who fought for almost 100 years so that I could have the right to vote. There might have been a few photos of some old-fashioned looking ladies in big hats carrying signs.

I never knew that suffragists were imprisoned, beaten and risked their lives so that I could have a voice in my government. Then I heard about Iron Jawed Angels, an HBO film about the courage of these women. I tracked it down and watched it. It was so moving, it inspired me to do some research on my own, to learn more of the story.

Click here to read the entire story: KPBS

Finding Your Writing Voice

Why I believe everyone can write

Writing is a simple, direct link to your soul, a voice, waiting to be heard, tapped into. It’s right there. One way to access it is to find a safe place, some simple exercises and possibly some like-minded people to allow it to come through.

Your voice might be a whisper at first, but it is there. In the hundreds of people I have taught, it has never failed.

Here’s how I do my classes. You could follow this format on your own with a few like-minded folks. Each class begins with a short meditation to help everyone to relax and to arrive. The meditation becomes a signal for the right brain and the inner self to know that the time is coming for it to speak and to draw a line between the rest of life and the time to write.

Click here to read the entire story: Insight