11/20/2025
An excerpt from Francis Weller’s book In the Absence of the Ordinary -
“Several years ago, I came across a passage by the Irish poet and philosopher John O’Donoghue. His words profoundly impacted my thoughts and have become an interior anthem in my life. He wrote, “What you encounter, recognize or discover depends to a large degree on the quality of your approach… When we approach with reverence, we find the world outside ourselves.”
“From this way of seeing, we recognize that everything possesses a measure of the sacred, including our sorrows and pain. How we approach our inner life profoundly affects what comes to us in return. An approach of reverence in our lives invites revelation. To pause and reflect on this can make all the difference between living in a cold, detached world, populated primarily by judgments and cynicism, OR living in a world infused with intimacy and awe. When our approach is one of reverence, we find ourselves falling into a deeper embrace, breathing in the surrounding world.”
