The Sun

When I received an invitation for a free issue of The Sun magazine I had recently let laps another magazine subscription because, though I enjoyed what I read, I simply didn’t have time to do much more than leaf through it once. The Sun’s brochure drew me in and I sent in the coupon. When the issue arrived I leafed through it. During the next few weeks I read a little but when the bill came inviting me to subscribe I wasn’t ready to do so but I set it aside not quite ready to check the “no thank you” box either. A couple of weeks later my wife and I found that between us we had read everything between the covers (and enjoyed the cover photo). I don’t have any more time now than I did then but when each new issue arrives I find that I have just finished the previous one and welcome the new one.

Two stories in the “Readers Write” section of the November issue moved me deeply confirming my belief that it is important to be true to ourselves. One was of a woman who had remade herself even changing her name to fit in at a new school. She kept the new identity until, in therapy for alcoholisms, she introduced herself by her old name and broke down sobbing; realizing that the name change was just a symbol of her denial of her true self.

In the same issue is an excerpt from John O’Donohue’s book To Bless the Space Between Us that expresses so well a truth I have found. “…the greatest gift you could ever dream is a gift that you can only receive from one person. And that person is yourself. Therefore, the most subversive invitation you could ever accept is the invitation to awaken to who you are and where you have landed.”

And later: “You develop from your own self-compassion a great compassion for others. You are no longer caught in the false game of judgment, comparison, and assumption. More naked now than ever, you begin to feel truly alive.”

These snippets don’t do justice to the single page in The Sun that has induced me to add John O’Donohue’s book to my list of books to read.