A Celtic Philosopher completes the circle of his life

I learned this week of the sudden death of John O'Donohue, author of the best selling book Anam Cara, which is an exploration of the way we live. It's a special work and resonates with those who question our modern way of life.    John delves into our understanding of life and our emotions as we face difficult times. For me, a pragmatic person from a business background, the book was an about turn.  While John talks about our spiritual nature, he very much aligns with Celtic understanding, of a universe where our natural rhythm forms our spiritual connection, where logic is only one aspect of our being. 
I have been in small business ventures most of my working life and now use my experience to mentor others in growing their businesses.  I have a small team who teach skills such as marketing and business planning. What we also teach is that business is a circle, and not linear.  The relationships with clients are best when they repeated and when there is interaction.  The best team is one that is engaged and involved, the best products are those that are sustainable, and can be re-used, re-made or re-cycled.  The linear economy was about - take, make and use, then throw away.  We now talk about the cyclic economy, and I believe that we need this new approach to all aspects of our modern living and working.  

“The Celtic Imagination” loved the circle. John’s work in Anam Cara is a reflection, rather than an analysis.  It is not a linear, logical thought process, but a circular exploration of what it means to live, to work, to experience external life, to find our interior selves, to age and to die.  Anam Cara means soul friend, which is not the “soul friend” or soul mate that we understand from romantic novels, but a transfiguration of our own deeper self, and an awareness of a deeper connection with others.  John O’Donohue uses the Celtic traditional stories, not to convert us to believing in fairies, or other magical forms, but to release in us a new sense of our own depth, an expanded sense of time, and powerful ways to re-connect with the natural world. 

In this modern time that we now find ourselves, living and working in cities, disengaged from the land and with scarcity of time for friendships, the message of Anam Cara is most significant.  We live in a linear world, where we take from the planet what we need, use it, and throw away the waste.  John O’Donohue has used the Celtic tradition of Anam Cara, to show us how to be a soul friend to ourselves and to our world, and how to transfigure our way of life from a disconnected line to a connected circle of belonging.    

John's legacy and his reflective presence endures.