• Home
  • Prompt Series—FREE
  • For Writers
  • Daily Poem-Subscribe! ✨
  • Teaching Tools
  • BOOKS Etc.
  • Patron Love

Book Club Announcement: John O’Donohue’s To Bless the Space Between Us

By Will Willingham 5 Comments

Bless the Space Between Us
When naming his book of blessings To Bless the Space Between Us, it was surely not John O’Donohue’s intent to reflect on the space created between humans during a time of social distancing. And, when we chose this as a book club title back in January, it was not our expectation that we would be daily aware of such a space.

Yet, here we are, separated by time, by space, by mask, by ideology, by fear, by loss, by one obstacle after another, perhaps making this a most fitting little volume for such a tumultuous time.

The poet O’Donohue reflects that our culture is often “haunted and lost” and that what we look at as progress has “cut away a huge region of human tissue and webbing that held us in communion with one another. We have fallen out of belonging. Consequently, when we stand before crucial thresholds in our lives, we have no rituals to protect, encourage, and guide us as we cross over into the unknown. For such crossings we need to find new words.”

Those new words, he suggests, can be found in blessing. O’Donohue offers a timely collection of interfaith blessings for “seven rhythms of the human journey: beginnings, desires, thresholds, homecomings, states of heart, callings, and beyond endings.”

To Bless the Space Between Us coverJoin us for a weekly discussion in June on John O’Donohue’s To Bless the Space Between Us. We’ll be reading on the schedule below:

June 10: Introduction, Beginnings (Ch. 1) & Desires (Ch. 2)
June 17: Thresholds (Ch. 3), Homecomings (Ch. 4) & States of Heart (Ch. 5)
June 24: Callings (Ch. 6), Beyond Endings (Ch. 7) & To Retrieve the Lost Art of Blessing

 

Want to Join Our Book Clubs? Become a Patron Today

Our book club discussions are a patron perk. You can become a Tweetspeak patron for as little as $5 a month.

And, you can opt to get each book club edition delivered in full straight to your inbox, with a photo and link to the discussion.

Photo by Noel Feans, Creative Commons via Flickr. Post by Will Willingham.

 

  • Author
  • Recent Posts
Will Willingham
Follow Will
Will Willingham
Director of Many Things; Senior Editor, Designer and Illustrator at Tweetspeak Poetry
I used to be a claims adjuster, helping people and insurance companies make sense of loss. Now, I train other folks with ladders and tape measures to go and do likewise. Sometimes, when I’m not scaling small buildings or crunching numbers with my bare hands, I read Keats upside down. My first novel, Adjustments, is available now.
Will Willingham
Follow Will
Latest posts by Will Willingham (see all)
  • Adjustments: A Belated Bicentenary Party for John Keats - March 4, 2021
  • The Reindeer Chronicles Book Club: You’re Cutting a Tree in Almería and Getting a Storm in Dusseldorf - February 17, 2021
  • The Reindeer Chronicles Book Club: We Can Never Approach the Wisdom of These Animals - February 10, 2021

Related

❤️✨ Sharing is caring

Filed Under: Blog, book club, To Bless the Space Between Us

About Will Willingham

I used to be a claims adjuster, helping people and insurance companies make sense of loss. Now, I train other folks with ladders and tape measures to go and do likewise. Sometimes, when I’m not scaling small buildings or crunching numbers with my bare hands, I read Keats upside down. My first novel, Adjustments, is available now.

Comments

  1. Maureen says

    May 27, 2020 at 8:15 am

    A wonderful go-to book that I have quoted from repeatedly when I needed something special for a friend on a particular occasion. I’ve recommended this and other O’Donohue books to many people. This one sits right ready at hand by my desk. O’Donohue’s spiritual background (he was a priest), ability to “talk philosophy” without sounding academic, and his immense humanity all have something to do with his ability to write such comforting and healing poems, I’m sure.

    And for those who are fans of both (and I am), Krista Tippett interviewed O’Donohue. The interview is easily found at onbeing[dot] org.

    Reply
    • Maureen says

      May 28, 2020 at 6:47 am

      I call them poems but should point out O’Donohue does not and he draws a distinction between the two.

      Reply
  2. Bethany R. says

    May 27, 2020 at 2:41 pm

    What a fitting book for this time. I haven’t read the book yet but wonder, what blessings can we extend to each other even today? Maybe the offer to listen to someone share their ache? Or if one needs the focus on something else, spotlighting a simple pleasure we see out our window?

    Reply
    • Laura Lynn Brown says

      June 10, 2020 at 5:38 pm

      Maybe sometimes a reassurance in the face of self-doubt? Someone today apologized for not being a good hostess, and I noted specific ways I thought she had been an excellent hostess. Just what I needed. But not what she assumed I might have expected. People bless me this way sometimes, in reflecting back to me a more generous, kinder view of something I have fretted about.

      Reply
  3. Megan Willome says

    May 29, 2020 at 9:23 am

    Since my hard copy never came in (see my By Heart post), I bought it on Kindle and started it yesterday. Yes, such a fitting book for Right Now.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Take How to Read a Poem

Get the Introduction, the Billy Collins poem, and Chapter 1

get the sample now

Welcome to Tweetspeak

New to Tweetspeak Poetry? Start here, in The Mischief Café. You're a regular? Check out our April Menu.

Keep the World Poetic

❤️

Welcome a little patron love, when you help keep the world thoughtful and poetic.

5 FREE POETRY PROMPTS

Get 5 FREE inbox poetry prompts from the popular book How to Write a Poem

Join the Poetry Club

Join the poetry club, when you become a subscriber to Every Day Poems ✨

The classic—Now a Graphic Novel!

"Stunning, heartbreaking, and relevant illustrations"

Callie Feyen, teacher

read a summary of The Yellow Wallpaper

meet The Yellow Wallpaper characters

Recent Comments

  • Alex on National Poetry Month Book Giveaway—Tell Us Your Personal Poetry Story to Enter!
  • Megan Willome on 50 States of Generosity: Washington
  • Bethany R. on 50 States of Generosity: Washington
  • Megan Willome on Poet-a-Day: Meet Tom C. Hunley

Featured In

We're happy to have been featured in...

The Huffington Post

The Paris Review

The New York Observer

Tumblr Book News

Stay in Touch With Us

Categories

Learn to Write Form Poems

How to Write an Acrostic

How to Write a Ballad

How to Write a Catalog Poem

How to Write a Ghazal

How to Write a Haiku

How to Write an Ode

How to Write a Pantoum

How to Write a Rondeau

How to Write a Sestina

How to Write a Sonnet

How to Write a Villanelle

Free Printable Poet Bios

Browse all poet bios now

Shakespeare Resources

Poetry Classroom: Sonnet 18

Common Core Picture Poems: Sonnet 73

Sonnet 104 Annotated

Sonnet 116 Annotated

Character Analysis: Romeo and Juliet

Character Analysis: Was Hamlet Sane or Insane?

Why Does Hamlet Wait to Kill the King?

10 Fun Shakespeare Resources

About Shakespeare: Poet and Playwright

Top 10 Shakespeare Sonnets

See all 154 Shakespeare sonnets in our Shakespeare Library!

Explore Work From Black Poets

About Us

  • • Generous-Annual Theme 2021
  • • Our Story
  • • Meet Our Team
  • • Literary Citizenship
  • • Poet Laura
  • • Poetry for Life: The 5 Vital Approaches
  • • T. S. Poetry Press – All Books
  • • Contact Us

Write With Us

  • • 5 FREE Poetry Prompts-Inbox Delivery
  • • 30 Days to Richer Writing Workshop
  • • How to Write Form Poems-Infographics
  • • Poetry Club Tea Date
  • • Poetry Prompts
  • • Submissions

Read With Us

  • • All Our Books
  • • Best Love Poetry
  • • Book Club
  • • Charlotte Perkins Gilman Poems Library
  • • Every Day Poems
  • • Literacy Extras
  • • Literary Analysis
  • • Poems to Listen By: Audio Series
  • • Poet-a-Day
  • • Poets and Poems
  • • VerseWrights Journal
  • • William Blake Poems Arts & Experience Library
  • • William Shakespeare Sonnet Library
  • • 50 States Projects

Celebrate With Us

  • • Poem on Your Pillow Day
  • • Poetic Earth Month
  • • Poet in a Cupcake Day
  • • Poetry at Work Day
  • • Random Acts of Poetry Day
  • • Take Your Poet to School Week
  • • Take Your Poet to Work Day

Gift Ideas

  • • Give the Gift of Every Day Poems
  • • Our Shop
  • • Everybody Loves a Book!

Connect

  • • Donate
  • • Blog Buttons
  • • By Heart
  • • Shop for Tweetspeak Fun Stuff

Copyright © 2021 Tweetspeak Poetry · Site by The Willingham Enterprise · FAQ & Disclosure