John O’Donohue’s Beauty

I started the challenge with a book that I am most certainly incapable of finishing in one sitting- hopefully I will get through it before the challenge is over at all!  It is an exquisitely beautiful meditation on Beauty by Celtic mystic, John O’Donohue.

To be perfectly honest, I chose this to counteract…  provide a balance for … the disjointedness and complexity of the modern poetry work.  I was thirsting for some prose that is simple and beautiful.  I have read two other books written by O’Donohue (Anam Cara and Eternal Echoes) and they both totally blew me away, and this one does not disappoint.

What I love most is that it does not, after all, provide any kind of oppostion to the modern poetry work- in fact, it has proved to be a wonderful support.  It flows in communion with the challenging study, and it offers an opportunity – to bring my life back into alignment with beauty- not romantic, idealistic, naive loveliness- actually with the soul-deepening, difficult work of letting go of romantic notions to discover where true beauty resides.

And yes, it has already been underlined page after page, a completely interactive work of contemplation.