goodbye; new friend

so i was sitting in church this morning.

listening to the music and at first my thoughts are racing.

sometimes i start to think so many different things about God; who? what? where? when? why?

there can be lots of questions.

i find it hard to get centred sometimes.

i sit and have to wait for the peace to come, and it usually does.

then i know that it doesn't matter how many questions or answers there are.

i walked there and back which is always good for clearing the head.

so then i got home and on the radio there's an irish guy, an ex priest, being interviewed and he has the most amazing voice and, what i like to think of, as an old fashioned irish accent.

he's talking about when he was a priest, which he was for, i think he said, 19 years.

he's talking about death and dying and he's talking about the things we don't understand about faith, death etc.

he believes that the dead are around us, guiding us, protecting us etc.

it sounded nice to hear it put like that.

i won't do him justice trying to quote him here.

but everything he said sounded like music and made such sense and was so comforting.

i had never heard him before and i was fascinated, wondering who he was and where i could hear more of him.

then the interviewer said we were listening to a repeat broadcast from last year, or some other time, with john o'donohue, the irish poet and philosopher, who died last week at the age of 53.

silently, in his sleep.

i was sad.

we were the same age too.

he has (had) a website http://www.jodonohue.com/

you can see for yourself and even hear his magic voice.

he was a complete gift.

i copied this poem from there. he must have written it about someone he loved.

On the death of the Beloved

Though we need to weep your loss,

You dwell in that safe place in our hearts,

Where no storm or night or pain can reach you.

Your love was like the dawn

Brightening over our lives

Awakening beneath the dark

A further adventure of colour.

The sound of your voice

Found for us

A new music

That brightened everything.

Whatever you enfolded in your gaze

Quickened in the joy of its being;

You placed smiles like flowers

On the altar of the heart.

Your mind always sparkled

With wonder at things.
Though your days here were brief,

Your spirit was live, awake, complete.

We look towards each other no longer

From the old distance of our names;

Now you dwell inside the rhythm of breath,

As close to us as we are to ourselves.

Though we cannot see you with outward eyes,

We know our soul’s gaze is upon your face,

Smiling back at us from within everything

To which we bring our best refinement.

Let us not look for you only in memory,

Where we would grow lonely without you.

You would want us to find you in presence,

Beside us when beauty brightens,

When kindness glows

And music echoes eternal tones.

When orchids brighten the earth,

Darkest winter has turned to spring;

May this dark grief flower with hope

In every heart that loves you.

May you continue to inspire us:
To enter each day with a generous heart.

To serve the call of courage and love

Until we see your beautiful face again

In that land where there is no more separation,

Where all tears will be wiped from our mind,

And where we will never lose you again.

-- John O’Donohue