A Work of Soul

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I’ve just begun reading Anam Cara by John O’Donohue, and I am not new to O’Donohue’s work, but within the first few chapters of this book, I had highlighted more sections of text than any book I’ve read in the recent past. This book of poetic Celtic mysticism has stunned me to the core with its deep, soul stirring message. Anam Cara means soul friend in the Gaelic language, and the text clearly instructs the reader to look within rather than without to discover one’s soul friend. Since I have not completed the book, this post will not discuss nor review the contents. However, I want simply want to draw a line in the sand, to create something of a remembrance for myself and for anyone else who might read this post. I want to officially capture those words and sections of text which resonate clear and dear to me. I hope the following quotes from the text will intrigue and awaken in you a desire to read O’Donohue for yourself. I am certain if you do, you will soon meet yourself as beloved friend and soulmate.

“Real friendship or love is not manufactured or achieved by an act of will or intention. Friendship is always an act of recognition.”

p.30

“Your body is in the soul, and the soul suffuses you completely. Therefore, all around you there is a secret and beautiful soul-light. This recognition suggests a new art of prayer: Close your eyes and relax into your body. Imagine a light all around you, the light of your soul. Then with your breath, draw that light into your body and bring it with your breath through every area of your body.“

pg 46

A Blessing

May the light of your soul guide you.

May the light of your soul bless the work you do with the secret love and warmth of your heart.

May you see in what you do the beauty of your own soul.

May the sacredness of your work bring healing, light, and renewal to those who work with you and to those who see and receive your work.

May your work never weary you.

May it release within you wellsprings of refreshment, inspiration, and excitement.

May you be present in what yo do.

May you never become lost in the bland absences.

May the day never burden.

May dawn find you awake and alert, approaching your new day with dreams, possibilities, and promises.

May evening find you gracious and fulfilled.

May you go into the night blessed, sheltered, and protected.

May your soul calm, console, and renew you.

pg 112

A Growth Perspective?

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When I pay attention to the seemingly insignificant ‘little things’ that come across my viewport in the earliest hours of my day, it is then that I am most delighted by the generosity and subtlety of the universe-beneficent. I enjoy these little synchronicities as they appear in purview, without my beckoning or request. Floating, flitting and swirling around my head for noticing eyes, they tickle my ears all the way down to my toes like pretty little butterflies. The effortless beauty and timing of these morning synchronicities are indeed a delight to encounter….again and again and again. Without cause their perfectly-timed appearance never fail to shuttle me into wide-wakefulness.


This morning’s synchronicity appeared as a word which popped up in every item my eyes came across to read. So in honor of today’s discovery, I will share what came to me. Coincidentally or otherwise, here is what floated across the airwaves as I prepared myself for another full day of training appointments and household chores. Today’s intriguing little word is…GROWTH. As a concept, this is what I build my personal training business upon, so I am intimately acquainted with its life-giving value. However, growth for the sake of growth alone, must always be checked! Why is this? Because growth unchecked and undifferentiated is ultimately a zero sum game. Unlimited growth without end is not sustainable for an organism of any kind. This is the growth of cancer, and cancer left to its own devices will always culminate in the death of its host organism. So with this GROWTH perspective in mind, I’ll share some of the wise words which came my way today.

Your Next Life

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Letting go doesn’t mean forgetting. Quite the opposite: Letting go requires remembering the gifts of the past and the clues the caterpillar left you to navigate life as a butterfly.

Steps forward require steps down. “Our next life,” Glennon Doyle writes, “will always cost us this one. If we are truly alive, we are constantly losing who we just were, what we just built, what we just believed, what we just knew to be true.” Any real change requires you to die before you die—and know that dying can be the beginning, not the end.

Ozan Varol – The Death of You

On Becoming

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“If you inherently long for something, become it first. If you want gardens, become the gardener. If you want love, embody love. If you want mental stimulation, change the conversation. If you want peace, exude calmness. If you want to fill your world with artists, begin to paint. If you want to be valued, respect your own time. If you want to live ecstatically, find the ecstasy within yourself. This is how to draw it in, day by day, inch by inch.”

Victoria Erickson

Everywhere Love

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I cannot resist the urge to spread some love-life around this morning, so this post will include some of my favorite words on the most important topic in the world! Feel free to add to my list in the comments area. Enjoy and please share the love!

To say that I am made in the image of God is to say that Love is the reason for my existence…Love is my true identity…Love is my true character. Love is my name.

Thomas Merton

The soul is made of love and must ever strive to return to love…It must lose itself in love. By its very nature it must see God, who is love.

Mechthild of Magdenburg

Work without love is slavery.

Mother Teresa

Love comes out of heaven, unasked and unsought.

Pearl S. Buck

Love is not a mold that makes two people the same person. Love is the dream that enables both of us to be our own best person–together. Love knows that no one can fill up in us what we lack in ourselves.

Between the Dark and the Daylight by Joan Chittister

“There is nothing more truly artistic than to love people.”

Vincent Van Gogh

“f you ever have a doubt in life, do what’s best for the other person. Take yourself out of the equation and you will see magically, everything will work out.”

Audrey Hepburn

Wasting the Present

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Waiting is a state of mind. Basically, it means that you want the future; you don’t want the present. You don’t want what you’ve got, and you want what you haven’t got. With every kind of waiting, you unconsciously create inner conflict between your here and now, where you don’t want to be, and the projected future, where you want to be. This greatly reduces the quality of your life by making you lose the present.


There is nothing wrong with striving to improve your life situation. You can improve your life situation, but you cannot improve your life. Life is primary. Life is your deepest inner Being. It is already whole, complete, perfect. Your life situation consists of your circumstances and your experiences. There is nothing wrong with setting goals and striving to achieve things. The mistake lies in using it as a substitute for the feeling of life, for Being. The only point of access for that is the Now.


But beware: The false, unhappy self, based on mind identification, lives on time. It knows that the present moment is its own death and so feels very threatened by it. It will do all it can to take you out of it. It will try to keep you trapped in time.

The Power of Now – Eckhart Tolle

Creating, and Re-Creating

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“Remember first that everything you think, say, and do is a reflection of what you’ve decided about yourself; a statement of Who You Are; an act of creation in your deciding who you want to be. Never do anything in relationship out of a sense of obligation. Do whatever you do out of a sense of the glorious opportunity your relationship affords you to decide, and to be, Who You Really Are.”

Neale Donald Walsch