“The Greatest Sin is the Unlived Life”

A Year in the Death 1/4/21

John O’Donohue’s dedication and signature in my copy of “Eternal Echoes”

Today is the 13th anniversary of the death of the great Irish poet, author, and philosopher John O’Donohue — a man we lost far too soon. (He had just turned 51 a few days before dying in his sleep on January 4, 2008.)

If you’ve never read any of O’Donohue’s writings, you don’t know what you’re missing. He was best known for his international best-seller Anam Cara, which is Gaelic for “soul friend.” In it, he drew on his Gaelic heritage to introduce the world to classical Celtic stories, blessings, and teachings.

But I discovered Mr. O’Donohue through his equally beautiful Eternal Echoes: Exploring Our Yearning to Belong. In this deeply spiritual book, he explored the “divine restlessness of the human heart, our eternal echo of longing that lives deep within us and never lets us settle for what we have or where we are” [from the jacket cover of the hardcover edition].

One of the things I most loved about this book is O’Donohue’s belief that we spend too much time focusing on where we’re going at the point of death and not enough time pondering where we came from before we were born. Because if the soul continues after death, it had to be somewhere prior to birth.

Ponder that for a while.