Celebrity actor and activist, Mike Farrell, is best known for portraying the part of Captain B.J. Hunnicutt in the hit series M*A*S*H. An active and outspoken citizen, Mike defends human rights and promotes environmental issues, and for his work has received several awards, including the distinguished Donald Wright Award from California Attorneys for Criminal Justice. Mike Farrell is also the author of Just Call Me Mike: A Journey to Actor and Activist. He was also the close friend of John O’Donohue , author of several books, including Anam Cara, Eternal Echoes, and the newly released To Bless The Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings (Doubleday, March ’08). In January, 2008, at the young age of 52, John unexpectedly passed away in his sleep. A native of Ireland, John traveled often to the United States where he led workshops and gave lectures. He touched and continues to reach many souls through his writing and those who knew him well, such as Mike Farrell.

Mike Farrell—

“I would love to live

like a river flows,

carried by

the surprise

of its own unfolding.”

This is what my friend John O’Donohue called his ‘unfinished poem.’ He said, “I have this much but can’t figure what comes next.”

“No, John,” I said. “Nothing more is needed. It’s perfect.”

John lived like a river flowed, delighting in the surprises of his every unfolding, all the while thrilling, charming and inspiring those of us lucky enough to know him with every turn and discovery of his too-short life.

Too short for me, I should say.

For him, it’s simply another adventure. I know he’s just behind me, next to me, all around me, because, as John was quick to remind us, Celtic lore holds that our departed family and loved ones are our nearest neighbors. So I can hear his wonderful, booming laugh reaching across this last “threshold,” as he called the moments, the steps in our lives that must be recognized, prized and blessed. I say it’s the last threshold. It’s the last of which I know. John is now on to the discovery of those beyond.

Of thresholds, he said we have “fallen out of belonging.” So “when we stand before crucial thresholds in our lives we have no rituals to protect, encourage and guide us as we cross over into the unknown.” Thus, as he did with every waking moment of his life, John acknowledged the mystery of the connection between us and offered, through the gift of his genius, a book of blessings for such times.

“To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings,” is John’s… most recent book (I can’t bring myself to say ‘last’). As you read it, if you listen very closely you’ll hear John in the ‘taneloch.’ He said of taneloch, “You know the music you hear when the wind blows across a lake up in the high country? Taneloch is the music you hear when there isn’t any wind.” For me now, taneloch is the lilt of the brogue that colors every nuance in this gift from my friend that blesses the space between us.

“Let us not look for you only in memory,

where we would grow lonely without you.

You would want us to find you in presence,

beside us when beauty brightens,

when kindness glows,

and music echoes eternal tones.”

From To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings, by John O’Donohue

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