Inspired by my coach Carla, I recently bought the book Beauty – the invisible embrace by John O’Donahue. Haven’t started to read it yet, but I will. In the meantime, I’ve listened to the podcast from On Being, where Krista Tippett is in conversation with John just a few month before he died, way to early, at 52 years of age.
This is another one of those podcasts where I, after listening to it, simply press PLAY again, to listen once more. And then once more. And so on. Every time I hear something new, pick up on a different vibe, moved by a phrase, a word, an emotion arising within me.
There is just too much beauty, wonder, insight and laughter in this podcast to even begin to try to characterize or label it. It’s simply too rich, too overwhelming, too beautiful.
I absolutely adore Johns Irish accent so I could re-listen to this podcast many times, solely for the joy of hearing John speak. It’s beautiful, there’s a rhythm and song to it, that gathers me up, holds me, in warm arms. And beauty is, after all, one of the theme this entire conversation centers around. John gives some wonderful suggestions on how to ensure you have beauty in your life, no matter what physical surroundings you live in, suggestions that are profound in their simplicity.
Now, at the end of this interview (which I truly hope you will listen to!), John talks a bit about conversation. He asks a question, which I will leave you with:
And the question is: when is the last time that you had a great conversation, a conversation which wasn’t just two intersecting monologues, which is what passes for conversation a lot in this culture. But when had you last a great conversation, in which you overheard yourself saying things that you never knew you knew?
In 2015 I ran a series on herothecoach.com with Sunday postings of podcasts to my liking. In 2017 I will be re-posting some of those blog posts – and this is one of them, originally posted here – , mixing them up with new podcast recommendations.
As I scrolled through the podcasts from 2015, to find the one to post here, I discarded this one, and that one, and this other one as well… until I came across my piece On Beauty, and my eyes started to well up with tears. At the current moment, when my feeling of inadequacy is rife, in most aspects of life, and desperation and despair surround me, the need for John O’Donahue’s wonderfully soothing and melodic voice, the message, the call for beauty, shoots like a ray of sunlight straight into my heart and lights up my world. Just a bit, just enough to raise my hopes. So here you are, a wonderful podcast, that I, for one, will listen to, right now, helping me remember there is beauty, and it is life affirming.