From the beloved author of the bestselling To Bless the Space Between Us and Anam Cara comes a new work that shares his insights on nature and the ancient wisdom of this earth. John O'Donohue won hundreds of thousands of admirers with his now classic work on Celtic spirituality Anam Cara . Unfortunately he died suddenly at age fifty-two just as his book of blessings, To Bless the Space Between Us , was being published. The loss of his powerfully wise and lyrical voice has been profoundly missed, but his many readers are given a special opportunity to revisit John in a new book based on a series of papers he wrote on the elements of water, stone, air, and fire, now published here for the first time. O'Donohue's readers know him as both a spiritual guide and a poet, and in this work he exhibits both qualities, sharing his Celtic heritage and his love for his native landscape in the west of Ireland. As O'Donohue explores a range of themes relating to the way we live our lives today, he reveals how the energy and rhythm of the natural world—its innocence and creativity, its power and splendor—hold profound lessons for us all. With a foreword written by his beloved brother, Pat, this illuminating book is an inspired reflection on the ancient wisdom of the earth. John O'Donohue, PhD, was born in County Clare, Ireland, in 1956. He spoke Irish as his native language and lived in a remote cottage in the west of Ireland until his untimely death in January 2008. A highly respected poet and philosopher, he lectured throughout Europe and America and wrote a number of popular books, including  Anam Cara  and  To Bless the Space Between Us . BREATH AND TIME TIME IS ONE OF the most haunting things about human life. There is no one immune to it. We are all subjects of time. It gives us our possibilities; it gives us our lives. When we run out of time, life is over. Time is fascinating. It has hidden depths. The fourteenth-century philosopher and mystic Meister Eckhart was enthralled by the idea of time and its relation to eternity. He believed that we cannot consider God in any chronological time frame. The calendar is no guide to the divine ground. God is not subject to the linearity of human time. Everything in God subsists in the most radical nowness. God is Nowness. But since we are mortal and material, all time is for us either prior or subsequent moment. For the human being, time constellates itself in past, present and future. This threefold time frame governs the life of all human beings. Some people remain prisoners of the past. Its burdens and mistakes haunt them. They remain bound to the past in negative terms of regret, anger, remorse or bitterness. There are others who are bound to the time that is not yet here, to the time that is not yet real--the future. They remain continually anxious about what will happen or what might fail to happen. Very few people seem to manage to live in the present. Few inhabit the present moment or tune into the Now. The only time we have is the time that is now. The present time is the only real time. The Eastern tradition has been helpful in drawing our attention to breathing as the activity of gathering presence toward attention. The focus on the breath brings attention. In your breathing you make the present presence for yourself. The secret of your identity lies not in the time that you have lost, nor in the time that lies ahead of you. The secret and substance of your identity is hidden in the time you have here and now. In meditation you try to let go of the past. You try to stop being anxious about the future. You focus on and enjoy the time that you have now. When you are stressed and burdened by things, it is liberating to tune into the present, to enter into the deeper rhythm of your being. At a deeper level, time is but eternity living dangerously. To sense this latent eternity changes one's experience in subtle ways. The art of breathing is used also in the control of pain. If you have severe pain, you can distract yourself through the art of breathing. Many women in pre-natal classes learn the art of breathing as a way of controlling the severe and savage pains of childbirth. BREATH AS PRAYER ONE OF THE OLDEST words for God in the Hebrew scriptures is the word "Ruach" which also means breath. Even in early Greek Stoic philosophy the fundamental concept of Spirit was rendered by the word "Pneuma," which could also mean air. In the Buddhist tradition breathing as the art of coming into the presence of the divine was a sacred and liturgical activity. In the Bible there is the lovely story of Elijah who was waiting for God. First there came a storm, but God was not in the storm. Then a wind came, but God was not in the wind. Finally, a breeze came and God was in the gentle breeze. This is a lovely recognition of God as breath and tenderness. One of the most exciting metaphors for the Holy Spirit in the New Testament is that the Holy Spirit is like the wi