What do you think? I'm ready for a dicussion if you are......
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THE INVITATION by Orian Mountain Dreamer
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
copyright © 1999 by Oriah Mountain Dreamer.
5 comments:
What do YOU think? Go ahead and start the discussion....
:)
Well let's start with the first paragraph....
With all the people you know - have you ever asked what they ache for? Do you know them that well, or you just know what's on the surface? Their job, where they live, are they married, where they grew up.
All the people I know? No. There are many levels of relating to one another. From one end being acquaintences and on the surface, to the other having a deep relationship and/or friendship with and then somewhere in between.
Have I ever flat out asked someone I'm close with what's their ultimate passion in life? No. However, through time, I'm able to understand them on the whole, if that makes any sense.
What say you?
:)
Why not get to know everyone on that level? Are they not worth that commitment? Expend the energy to really get to know as many people as you can. Their motivations will become more clear to you if you know them at that level.
Just a thought.....
damn straight.
But I think that the poem poses a set of questions I'd ask my partner, if I didn't already know or intuit the answers. And that likely I'd know much of this already (or intuit, sure) about my best girlfriends.
that kind of honesty comes with a price - you have to commit enough to the relationship to earn the answers to these questions.
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