Culturally, beauty is one of those muddied words. Our minds have been trained to go to perfect

bodies and flawless faces on the covers of magazines. But that, as John O'Donohue, the late, great Irish

poet and philosopher of beauty, helpfully distinguished, is glamour. I've taken his definition as my own

for naming beauty in all its nuance

in the moment-to-moment reality of our days.

Beauty is that in the presence of which we feel more alive.

This is becoming wise, an inquiry into the mystery and the art of living.

I'm Krista Tippett.

John O'Donohue's own creativity of philosophy and poetry and being emerged from the dazzling raw land of

Connemara in Western Ireland.

Well, I suppose I was blessed by being born into an amazing landscape in the West of Ireland.

And it's the barn region, which is limestone.

And it's a bare limestone landscape.

And I often think that the forms of the limestone are so abstract and aesthetic.

And it is as if they were all laid down by some wild, surrealistic kind of deity.

So soon being a child and coming out into that, it was waiting

like a huge wild invitation to extend your imagination. And then it's right on the edge of the ocean

as well, say the conversation, an ancient conversation between the ocean and the stone going on.

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.

John O'Donohue was poetic about the possibility of creating our own inner landscapes of beauty

to keep us vital in the midst of bleak and dangerous surroundings and experiences.

...