In this follow-up to his international bestsellers Anam Cara and Eternal Echoes , John O’Donohue turns his attention to the subject of beauty—the divine beauty that calls the imagination and awakens all that is noble in the human heart Beauty is a gentle but urgent call to awaken. O'Donohue opens our eyes, hearts, and minds to the wonder of our own relationship with beauty by exposing the infinity and mystery of its breadth. His words return us to the dignity of silence, profundity of stillness, power of thought and perception, and the eternal grace and generosity of beauty's presence. In this masterful and revelatory work, O'Donohue encourages our greater intimacy with beauty and celebrates it for what it really is: a homecoming of the human spirit. As he focuses on the classical, medieval, and Celtic traditions of art, music, literature, nature, and language, O'Donohue reveals how beauty's invisible embrace invites us toward new heights of passion and creativity even in these uncertain times of global conflict and crisis. “The author of the bestselling Anam Cara hits a lyrical mark again with this book….A lively and informed discussion among great minds—a digest of provocative views on an inexhaustible and compelling topic. This refreshing book falls like rain on the parched plain of contemporary discourse.” - Publishers Weekly (starred review) Beauty does not linger, it only visits. Yet beauty's visitation affects us and invites us into its rhythm, it calls us to feel, think, and act beautifully in the world: to create and live a life that awakens the Beautiful. Beauty is a gentle but urgent call to awaken. Bestselling author John O'Donohueopens our eyes, hearts, and minds to the wonder of our own relationshipwith beauty by exposing the infinity and mystery of its breadth. His wordsreturn us to the dignity of silence, profundity of stillness, power of thought andperception, and the eternal grace and generosity of beauty's presence. In this masterfuland revelatory work, O'Donohue encourages our greater intimacy with beauty andcelebrates it for what it really is: a homecoming of the human spirit.As he focuses on the classical, medieval, and Celtic traditions of art, music, literature,nature, and language, O'Donohue reveals how beauty's invisible embraceinvites us toward new heights of passion and creativity even in these uncertain timesof global conflict and crisis. John O'Donohue (1956-2008) was a poet, philosopher, and scholar and a native Gaelic speaker from County Clare, Ireland. He was awarded a PhD in Philosophical Theology from the University of Tübingen, with post-doctoral study of Meister Eckhart. John's numerous international bestselling books include  Anam Cara ,  Beauty ,  Eternal Echoes , and the beloved  To Bless the Space Between Us (published as Benedictus in Europe), among many others, guiding readers through the landscape of the Irish imagination.  Beauty The Invisible Embrace By O'Donohue, John Perennial ISBN: 0060957263 Chapter One The Call of Beauty Thy light alone -- Gives grace and truth to life's unquiet dream. Percy Bysshe Shelley, 'Hymn to Intellectual Beauty' Every life is braided with luminous moments. I was with a friend out on Loch Corrib, the largest lake in the West of Ireland. It was a beautiful summer's day. Time had come to rest in the silence and stillness that presided there. The lake slept without a ripple. A grey-blue haze enfolded everything. There was no division any more between earth and sky. Reaching far intothe distance, everything was suffused in a majestic blue light. The mountains of Conamara seemed like pile upon pile of delicate blue; you felt you could almost reach out your hand and pull them towards you. No object protruded anywhere. Trees, stones, fields and islands had forgotten themselves in the daze of blue. Then, suddenly, a harsh flutter as near us the lake surface split and a huge cormorant flew from inside the water and struck up into the air. Its ragged black wings and large awkward shape were like an eruption from the underworld. Against the finely woven blue everywhere its strange form fluttered and gleamed in absolute black. She had the place to herself. She was the one clear object to be seen. And as if to conceal the source as she soared, she left her shadow thistling the lake surface. This was an event of pure disclosure: a sudden epiphany from between the worlds. The strange beauty of the cormorant was a counterpoint to the dreamlike delicacy of the lake and the landscape. Sometimes beauty is that unpredictable; a threshold we had never noticed opens, mystery comes alive around us and we realize how the earth is full of concealed beauty. St Augustine expressed this memorably: 'I asked the earth, I asked the sea and the deeps, among the living animals, the things that creep. I asked the winds that blow, I asked the heavens, the sun, the moon, the stars, and to all things that stand at the doors of my flesh ...