The Invitation.
- Symi
- Jul 4
- 3 min read
The Invitation.
by Oriah 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 centre of your own sorrow, if you have been opened by life's betrayals or have become shrivelled 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, be realistic, 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 is 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 at 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 centre 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.
We can do this. When it is hard, I will remind you of what you already know: that you can do this; that the courage to go deeper is found by letting your desire grow larger than your fear' that strength is found in your longing to live fully, your willingness to settle for nothing less. I will not leave you suspended in the places that may be difficult, but will move you through to the places where breathing comes more easily.
The courage of your heart, will stand up again and again, and expand to hold all that matters, even when doing so seems to the hooman mind, unbearable or simply impossible. It is our journey to live life intimately. It may not be easier, but it is fuller, richer and more open to everything: the confusion and the insight, the excitement and the boredom, the shadow and the light.
This is our challeenge: to journey into a deeper intimacy with the world around you and the your life within you without any promise of safety or guarantee of reward beyone the intrinisic value of full participation. I believe, with my whole soul, that if we allow ourselves to imagine that each moment in which we love well, by simply being all of who we are and being fully present, this allows us to give something essential back into the world, into the life that sustains us.
