Mary O & John O

With the new year here, I’ve been thinking about inspiration and encouragement. Where we go for inspiration, who encourages us? What words uplift and help us to be brave? Words that motivate us, or that we feel comforted by.

We live in a world where there’s so much choice, endless recommendations & reviews, from our favourite people to follow their suggestions, our local bookstore Staff Pics and of course, god love the algorithm.

If you’re like me and you prefer a philosophical perspective, what are you leaning into for inspiration and growth? What is bringing you a sense of comfort and ease with your tea?

After a few decades immersed in Yoga, I stepped away to find myself a little adrift. I’d loved the yogic wisdom texts for a long time, but I found that the chapter had closed and with it my connection with those texts.

As I changed the shape of what I wrote from

Its All Yoga,

to Sara’s Loves,

to The Beauty of Living,

I remembered the nourishment and love I receive from poetry.

Maybe its my age,

maybe its just divine timing,

it could be both,

but it felt nice to be home.

This homecoming, or housewarming, went hand in hand with Divine Beauty, by John O’Donohue. My copy is so loved, with tiny drops of tea, top corners turned, passages underlined & highlighted, its adored. And he keeps company with Devotions by Mary Oliver, also pretty ear turned with remnants of food on the cover (I swear I’m not a piggie).

These two authors, spiritual seekers, lovers of nature, these two are the ones I come back to again and again.

Mary & John, which makes me smile as they are also my parents names, offers me a feeling of home.