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There are many forms of friendship and I’m exploring the concept of soul friends. Below are brief excerpts from John O’Donohue’s book Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom which includes A Friendship Blessing. Is this meaningful for you?

“In the Celtic tradition, there is a beautiful understanding of love and friendship. One of the fascinating ideas here is the idea of soul-love; the old Gaelic term for this is anam cara. Anam is the Gaelic word for soul and cara is the word for friend …

In everyone’s life, there is a great need for a soul friend. In this love, you are understood as you are without mask or pretension … an anam-cara friendship is graced with affection. Friendship awakens affection. The heart learns a new art of feeling.

A Friendship Blessing

May you be blessed with good friends.

May you learn to be a good friend to yourself.

May you be able to journey to that place in your soul where there is

great love, warmth, feeling, and forgiveness.

May this change you.

May it transfigure that which is negative, distant, or cold in you.

May you be brought in to the real passion, kinship, and affinity of

belonging.

May you treasure your friends.

May you be good to them and may you be there for them; may they

bring you all the blessings, challenges, truth, and light that you

need for your journey.

May you never be isolated.

May you always be in the gentle nest of belonging with your

anam cara.

Excerpted from Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom by John O’Donohue, Copyright © 1997 by John O’Donohue.