Anam Cara: What we are about.

There is a beautiful illustration of what Anam Cara means: “Love as ancient recognition. This metaphor a friendship can be grounded in the clay nature of the human body. When you find the person you love, an act of ancient recognition brings you together. It is as if millions of years before the silence of nature broke, his or her clay and your clay lay side by side. Then, in the turning of the seasons, you're one clay divided and separated. You began to rise as distinct clay forms, each housing a different individuality and destiny. Without even knowing it, your secret memory mourned your loss of each other. Well you clay selves wondered for thousands of years through the universe, you're longing for each other never faded. This metaphor helps to explain how in the moment of friendship 2 souls suddenly recognise each other.” (Anam Cara, John Donohue, P45)

When John and I (Kath) met, the wonderful words of John O’Donohue’s poems and stories impacted us so profoundly as we realised we were and remain each other’s Anam Cara (soul friend). We spoke the words of blessing and poetry at our wedding and exchanged rings with the words engraved. Our marital vow promised was to always prefer one another and that is ever a work in progress!

This exchange has ever since helped us remind each other sometimes when there is a distance and we are adrift to return to this connection (like the clay finding one another). And preferring one another extended beyond ourselves to others in our communities and the wonderful planet in which is home.

Home became for us a little cottage just inside the Scottish Borders where Anam Cara Naturals was birthed. The origins of this creation came from our desire to respect and value each other, the earth from which everything is created and the lives of those we come into contact with. Anam Cara is not just about us and our love for each other but about community and the environment. Our desire to bless and nurture those around us, to bless and nurture the earth by reducing harm and retaining purity of goodness and love as far as possible. And to receive the blessing in return; we, our communities and the earth bring us so much!

We have spent hours poured into what our values are and how they are reflected in what we are producing. In essence we endeavour to create products that are natural, nourishing both externally and internally, bringing kindness and goodness to each part of the body, mind and soul. We create fragrances to calm and enliven, ground and excite, still and energise. We receive from nature the flowers, fruit, herbs that are poured into each product. Nature is do generous! Ultimately, we want to express love through what we create and hope that those in our communities will receive this love and give it away in like manner. It is as much about heart as it is about body.

“The body is the mirror where the secret world of the soul comes to expression. The body is a sacred threshold; and it deserves to be respected, minded and understood in its spiritual nature. The body is your only home in the universe. It is your house of belonging here in the world.” (Anam Cara, John Donohue, p73&74).