Tuesday, May 13, 2008

The Invitation

It doesn't interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what you ache for, and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart's longing.

It doesn't interest me how old you are. I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love, for your dream, for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn't interest me what planets are squaring your moon. I want to know if you have touched the center of your own sorrow, if you have been opened by life's betrayals or have become shriveled and closed from fear of further pain! I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own, without moving to hide it or fade it, or fix it.

I want to know if you can be with joy, mine or your own, if you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful, to be realistic, to remember the limitations of being human.

It doesn't interest me if the story you are telling me is true. I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself; if you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul; if you can be faithless and therefore trustworthy.

I want to know if you can see beauty even when it's not pretty, every day,and if you can source your own life from its presence.

I want to know if you can live with failure, yours and mine, and still stand on the edge of the lake and shout to the silver of the full moon, “Yes!”

It doesn't interest me to know where you live or how much money you have. I want to know if you can get up, after the night of grief and despair, weary and bruised to the bone, and do what needs to be done to feed the children.

It doesn't interest me who you know or how you came to be here. I want to know if you will stand in the center of the fire with me and not shrink back.

It doesn't interest me where or what or with whom you have studied. I want to know what sustains you, from the inside, when all else falls away.

I want to know if you can be alone with yourself and if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments.

by Oriah Mountain Dreamer from The Invitation

I read this poem today and thought that it captured a lot of things that I've thought about. Some of these things have become evident to me since being in the program. And some are things that I've thought about but could not express well. What she writes about fear in the book, "We are afraid that we will not be enough", is something that I've thought about. It's a good little book for meditative reading. Just wanted to share it here.

6 comments:

  1. Syd - - - How absolutely profound! Thanks for this prose. . . You have delivered something very poignant to me at an extremely tender time of my life.
    Anonymous #1

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  2. Where do you find these? Perfect for my life right now. And food for the future.
    Nice post.

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  3. My heart's longing is to know what I truly am supposed to look like as a 45-year old woman. I don't want to look like a super model. I want to look like me. I don't mind having wrinkles in my face (overweight people do not have wrinkles). I have longed for this for a very long time now.

    If you were here, I would dance with you.

    Very nice post.

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  4. and your sharing it is greatly appreciated. it's been printed and is in my handbag for re-reading.

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  5. Thanks for sharing that Syd, it made me think which sometimes leads me to analyse stuff.
    You sound like you live in great place, paradise city, is that what Guns N Roses sung about all them years ago.
    I like Yorkshire but I aint that well travelled in fact ive never left the uk in my 39 years alive!

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  6. That was lovely, Syd. I hadn't read or heard that piece before.

    Thanks for sharing it.

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Let me know what you think. I like reading what you have to say.