Teannalach! For Jeanie!

Happy Birthday to my Beloved Jeanie! Today!

I was reading this morning of an Irish farmer who told a poet that he himself could not write poetry, but he did have the gift of “Teannalach.”

He said that he lived by a lake, and often heard the ripple of the waters, but on days when it was very still he could hear more deeply – below the surface – the “magic music” of the lake.

The poet-philosopher John O’Donohue says this story underlines “the hiddenness” of beauty. Beauty, he says, only reveals itself to awareness, when “the imagination is finely tuned.”

I like that! And when I think of Jeanie that Celtic word applies!

There is beauty in her face – no one believes she is really her age!

But also the hidden beauty of an open, warm, loving and caring spirit – for me! For our family. For our friends.

She sometimes says she’d like to be her own best friend! I understand why.

And so do the many friends of the years, men and women alike, drawn to her for those qualities, both evident and hidden, which reflect the beauty of Christ in her.

So, Jeanie, happy birthday! I love you!

And love your own observant quality of “tennalach”! You do know how to pay attention!

Leighton Ford