To Bless the Space Between Us Quotes

“May we all receive blessing upon blessing. And may we realize our power to bless, heal, and renew one another.”
― John O'Donohue, To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings

“Within the grip of winter, it is almost impossible to imagine the spring. The gray perished landscape is shorn of color. Only bleakness meets the eye; everything seems severe and edged. Winter is the oldest season; it has some quality of the absolute. Yet beneath the surface of winter, the miracle of spring is already in preparation; the cold is relenting; seeds are wakening up. Colors are beginning to imagine how they will return. Then, imperceptibly, somewhere one bug opens and the symphony of renewal is no longer reversible. From the black heart of winter a miraculous, breathing plenitude of color emerges.

The beauty of nature insists on taking its time. Everything is prepared. Nothing is rushed. The rhythm of emergence is a gradual slow beat always inching its way forward; change remains faithful to itself until the new unfolds in the full confidence of true arrival. Because nothing is abrupt, the beginning of spring nearly always catches us unawares. It is there before we see it; and then we can look nowhere without seeing it.”
― John O'Donohue, To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings

“To create a space for all our words, Drawing us to listen inward and outward. We seldom notice how each day is a holy place Where the eucharist of the ordinary happens, Transforming our broken fragments Into an eternal continuity that keeps us. Somewhere in us a dignity presides That is more gracious than the smallness That fuels us with fear and force, A dignity that trusts the form a day takes. So at the end of this day, we give thanks For being betrothed to the unknown And for the secret work Through which the mind of the day And wisdom of the soul become one.”
― John O'Donohue, To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings

“May I live this day Compassionate of heart, Clear in word, Gracious in awareness, Courageous in thought, Generous in love.”
― John O'Donohue, To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings

“FOR THE TIME OF NECESSARY DECISION The mind of time is hard to read. We can never predict what it will bring, Nor even from all that is already gone Can we say what form it finally takes; For time gathers its moments secretly. Often we only know it’s time to change When a force has built inside the heart That leaves us uneasy as we are. Perhaps the work we do has lost its soul Or the love where we once belonged Calls nothing alive in us anymore. We drift through this gray, increasing nowhere Until we stand before a threshold we know We have to cross to come alive once more. May we have the courage to take the step Into the unknown that beckons us; Trust that a richer life awaits us there, That we will lose nothing But what has already died; Feel the deeper knowing in us sure Of all that is about to be born beyond The pale frames where we stayed confined, Not realizing how such vacant endurance Was bleaching our soul’s desire.”
― John O'Donohue, To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings

“Perhaps this is also true of places. When you are in a certain place, great love or kindness happens; it imprints itself on the ether of the place. When we pass there, hungry and needy in spirit, that loving imprint shines on us like an icon.”
― John O'Donohue, To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings

“We also notice, at the other end, how the shadows of old age are lit more and more from the invisible world.”
― John O'Donohue, To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings

“The world can be harsh and negative, but if we remain generous and patient, kindness inevitably reveals itself. Something deep in the human soul seems to depend on the presence of kindness;”
― John O'Donohue, To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings

“FOR A NEW BEGINNING In out-of-the-way places of the heart, Where your thoughts never think to wander, This beginning has been quietly forming, Waiting until you were ready to emerge. For a long time it has watched your desire, Feeling the emptiness growing inside you, Noticing how you willed yourself on, Still unable to leave what you had outgrown. It watched you play with the seduction of safety And the gray promises that sameness whispered, Heard the waves of turmoil rise and relent, Wondered would you always live like this. Then the delight, when your courage kindled, And out you stepped onto new ground, Your eyes young again with energy and dream, A path of plenitude opening before you. Though your destination is not yet clear You can trust the promise of this opening; Unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning That is at one with your life’s desire. Awaken your spirit to adventure; Hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk; Soon you will be home in a new rhythm, For your soul senses the world that awaits you.”
― John O'Donohue, To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings

“FOR BELONGING May you listen to your longing to be free. May the frames of your belonging be generous enough for your dreams. May you arise each day with a voice of blessing whispering in your heart. May you find a harmony between your soul and your life. May the sanctuary of your soul never become haunted. May you know the eternal longing that lives at the heart of time. May there be kindness in your gaze when you look within. May you never place walls between the light and yourself. May you allow the wild beauty of the invisible world to gather you, mind you, and embrace you in belonging.”
― John O'Donohue, To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings

“Maybe this is one of the secrets of death: that you die only when your invisible, unchosen lives have also fulfilled themselves, so that you bring into the eternal world not only your one known life but also the unknown, unchosen lives as well.”
― John O'Donohue, To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings

“The spirituality of the rural mind does not see time as routine or treadmill; time is a far more precious space where crevices open into the infinite, and where the rhythm of the eternal is felt to preside.”
― John O'Donohue, To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings

“A blessing is not a sentiment or a question; it is a gracious invocation where the human heart pleads with the divine heart.”
― John O'Donohue, To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings

“From time immemorial it has been one of the deepest longings of the human heart to strain against the erosion of one’s life, to find a way of living and being that manages to find some stable ground within time, a place from where something eternal can be harvested from our disappearance. This is what all art strives for: the creation of a living permanence.”
― John O'Donohue, To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings

“May you have the eyes to see That no visitor arrives without a gift And no guest leaves without a blessing.”
― John O'Donohue, To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings

“We enter the world as strangers who all at once become heirs to a harvest of memory, spirit, and dream that has long preceded us and will now enfold, nourish, and sustain us. The gift of the world is our first blessing.”
― John O'Donohue, To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings

“Real presence is the ideal of all true individuation. When we yield to helplessness, we strengthen the hand of those who would destroy.”
― John O'Donohue, To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings

“The more we recognize our found blessings, the more they increase around us.”
― John O'Donohue, To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings

“At the gates of time, blessing waits to usher toward us the grace we need.”
― John O'Donohue, To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings

“May you come to recognize That though your body is imprisoned, No one can imprison your mind. May all the time you have on your hands Bring you into new friendship with your mind”
― John O'Donohue, To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings

“At this time in my life, what am I leaving? Where am I about to enter?”
― John O'Donohue, To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings

“A morning when you become a pure vessel For what wants to ascend from silence,”
― John O'Donohue, To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings

“The mind of blessing is wise, and it knows that whatever torments or diminishes a person cannot be healed simply from within that diminishment; consequently it addresses the wholeness and draws that light and healing into the diminished area.”
― John O'Donohue, To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings

“FOR LONGING Blessed be the longing that brought you here And quickens your soul with wonder. May you have the courage to listen to the voice of desire That disturbs you when you have settled for something safe. May you have the wisdom to enter generously into your own unease To discover the new direction your longing wants you to take. May the forms of your belonging—in love, creativity, and friendship— Be equal to the grandeur and the call of your soul. May the one you long for long for you. May your dreams gradually reveal the destination of your desire. May a secret Providence guide your thought and nurture your feeling. May your mind inhabit your life with the sureness with which your body inhabits the world. May your heart never be haunted by ghoststructures of old damage. May you come to accept your longing as divine urgency. May you know the urgency with which God longs for you.”
― John O'Donohue, To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings

“There are people who will never forget today.”
― John O'Donohue, To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings

“It is fascinating that the destination of such a huge continental journey is the fragile little grass-and-mud homes in the roof of an abandoned shed. It suggests that one can undertake any voyage if the destination is home.”
― John O'Donohue, To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings

“May your work assume
A proper space in your life;
Instead of owning or using you,
May it challenge and refine you,
Bringing you every day further
Into the wonder of your heart.”
― John O'Donohue, To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings

“The anxieties of old age unclenching into grace”
― John O'Donohue, To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings

“Each life is clothed in raiment of spirit that secretly links it to everything else.”
― John O'Donohue, To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings

“In the letters between Boris Pasternak and Olga Ivinskaya there is the beautiful recognition: “When a great moment knocks on the door of your life, its sound is often no louder than the beating of your heart and it is very easy to miss it.”
― John O'Donohue, To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings