Words That Encourage #1

Welcome to the first Words That Encourage newsletter from me, James O’Brien. I’d love your feedback – just hit reply!

i) The Big Picture

Experience shapes us. Every season provides gifts and challenges. And so we grow, like a peace lily, seeking a happy combination of water, light and air.

The flowering lily is a helpful image for the fullness of life many people desire. Fullness hints at abundance. It really means a certain balance in the senses, being satisfied at the end of most days, and a joy that makes a home within us.

The flourishing person recognises a certain freshness to her experience. Underneath the appointments, conversations, messages, actions and silences of her day, she has one or two reasons for gratefulness. Sometimes more!

ii) All About Encouragement

‘Encouragement’ has been my key word for reflection for over two years. I hear it often when listening to Andy Hamilton, a Jesuit friend and writer, and I experience it through his way of relating with me and others.

The experience of ‘encouragement’ has unlocked rooms within me. Living through rolling world crises, looking at the person beside me and encouraging him has still been possible and worthwhile.

This wonderful word gives me a vision for building people up, and thus a way of being in community. It’s at the heart of life-giving encounters. And it opens a greater sense of joy in daily life.

Encouragement sustains my public and private sense of ‘hope’ in a changing world.

The word has a Christian history which grounds its meaning. The apostle Paul uses the Greek term paraklésis, translated as ‘encouragement’, in his list of different gifts given to people. John’s gospel has Jesus use this same paraklésis when introducing the Spirit of God.

Each day we face new choices. We can always find cause for encouragement or discouragement about our situation. Gratefulness helps us listen to the encouragement, and a balanced appraisal seems to follow.

The 13th century theologian Thomas Aquinas defined love as to seek the good of the other. If love is the set and our lives are the stage, we’re all in the chorus looking at each other, smiling, and letting the joy emerge in each voice. That’s what encouragement’s all about.

iii) Beautiful Music

I am enthralled by beautiful music. Today I invite you to listen to Winter in the Woods by Leaving Laurel via YouTube, Spotify, or Apple Music.

The piece begins with a pared-back and resonant piano solo that explores each chord note-by-note. The instrumental sound merges with a basic electronic beat and atmosphere.

Starting from a slow pace with a hint of deep feeling, the piece builds up towards heartfelt emotion. Midway through, the beat drops and the pace quickens. The song fills the listener with restlessness and an awareness of loss, before closing with quiet tones of hope.

Have a great weekend,James