Land is Alive: Lessons from John O'Donohue's Inner Landscape of Beauty

Click here to listen to the podcast. (Photo is LivingFuture’s SHO Farm, Vermont, USA)

One of the most inspired and inspirational interviews on the spiritual dimensions of land we’ve heard. From John O’Donohue’s sonorous voice, to his communication of the aliveness of land. Krista Tippett interviews him in this podcast episode from her show, “On Being.”

From Krista Tippett’s introduction:

“No conversation we’ve ever done has been more beloved than this one. The Irish poet, theologian, and philosopher insisted on beauty as a human calling. He had a very Celtic, lifelong fascination with the inner landscape of our lives and with what he called “the invisible world” that is constantly intertwining what we can know and see. This was one of the last interviews he gave before his unexpected death in 2008. But John O’Donohue’s voice and writings continue to bring ancient mystical wisdom to modern confusions and longings.”

John O’Donohue:

“I think it makes a huge difference, when you wake in the morning and come out of your house, whether you believe you are walking into dead geographical location, which is used to get to a destination, or whether you are emerging out into a landscape that is just as much, if not more, alive as you, but in a totally different form, and if you go towards it with an open heart and a real, watchful reverence, that you will be absolutely amazed at what it will reveal to you.

And I think that that was one of the recognitions of the Celtic imagination — that landscape wasn’t just matter, but that it was actually alive. What amazes me about landscape — landscape recalls you into a mindful mode of stillness, solitude, and silence, where you can truly receive time.”

Thank you Krista. And thank you John.